Shadow and Light
by Mifflin Wistar Gibbs · English · Gutenberg #28183 · 540,748 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Shadow and Light
Author: Mifflin Wistar Gibbs
Commentator: Booker T. Washington
Release date: February 25, 2009 [eBook #28183]
Most recently updated: January 4, 2021
Language: English
Original publication: Washington, D.C.,, 1902
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SHADOW AND LIGHT
[Illustration: Very truly yours, M. W. Gibbs]
SHADOW AND LIGHT
An Autobiography
With Reminiscences of the Last and Present Century.
by
MIFFLIN WISTAR GIBBS
With an Introduction by Booker T. Washington
A Fatherless Boy, Carpenter and Contractor, Anti-Slavery Lecturer,
Merchant, Railroad Builder, Superintendent of Mine, Attorney-at-Law,
County Attorney, Municipal Judge Register of United States Lands,
Receiver of Public Monies for U. S., United States Consul to
Madagascar--Prominent Race Leaders, etc.
Washington, D. C.
1902.
Copyright, 1902.
PREFACE.
During the late years abroad, while reading the biographies of
distinguished men who had been benefactors, the thought occurred that I
had had a varied career, though not as fruitful or as deserving of
renown as these characters, and differing as to status and aim. Yet the
portrayal might be of benefit to those who, eager for advancement, are
willing to be laborious students to attain worthy ends.
I have aimed to give an added interest to the narrative by embellishing
its pages with portraits of men who have gained distinction in various
fields, who need only to be seen to present the career of those now
living as worthy models, and the record of the dead, who left the world
the better for having lived. To enjoy a life prominent and prolonged is
a desire as natural as worthy, and there have been those who sought to
extend its duration by nostrums and drinking-waters said to bestow the
virtue of "perpetual life." But if "to live in hearts we leave behind is
not to die," to be worthy of such memorial we must have done or said
something that blessed the living or benefited coming generations. Hence
autobiography is the record, for "books are as tombstones made by the
living, but destined soon to remind us of the dead."
Trusting that any absence of literary merit will not impair the author's
cherished design to "impart a moral," should he fail to "adorn a tale."
Little Rock, Ark., January, 1902.
INTRODUCTION.
By BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.
It is seldom that one man, even if he has lived as long as Judge M. W.
Gibbs is able to record his impressions of so many widely separated
parts of the earth's surface as Judge Gibbs can, or to recall personal
experiences in so many important occurrences.
Born in Philadelphia, and living there when that city--almost on the
border line between slavery and freedom--was the scene of some of the
most stirring incidents in the abolition agitation, he was able as a
free colored youth, going to Maryland to work, to see and judge of the
condition of the slaves in that State. Some of the most dramatic
operations of the famous "Underground Railroad" came under his personal
observation. He enjoyed the rare privilege of being associated in labor
for the race with that man of sainted memory, the Hon. Frederick
Douglass. He met and heard many of the most notable men and women who
labored to secure the freedom of the Negro. As a resident of California
in the exciting years which immediately followed the discovery of gold,
he watched the development of lawlessness there and its results. A few
years later he went to British Columbia to live, when that colony was
practically an unknown country. Returning to the United States, he was a
witness to the exciting events connected with the years of
Reconstruction in Florida, and an active participant in the events of
that period in the State of Arkansas. At one time and another he has met
many of the men who have been prominent in the direction of the affairs
of both the great political parties of the country. In more recent years
he has been able to see something of life in Europe, and in his official
capacity as United States Consul to Tamatave, Madagascar, adjoining
Africa, has resided for some time in that far-off and strange land.
It would be difficult for any man who has had all these experiences not
to be entertaining when he tells of them. Judge Gibbs has written an
interesting book.
Interspersed with the author's recollections and descriptions are
various conclusions, as when he says: "Labor to make yourself as
indispensable as possible in all your relations with the dominant race,
and color will cut less figure in your upward grade."
"Vice is ever destructive; ignorance ever a victim, and poverty ever
defenseless."
"Only as we increase in property will our political barometer rise."
It is significant to find one who has seen so much of the world as Judge
Gibbs has, saying, as he does: "With travel somewhat extensive and
diversified, and with residence in tropical latitudes of Negro origin,
I have a decided conviction, despite the crucial test to which he has
been subjected in the past, and the present disadvantages under which he
labors, that nowhere is the promise along all the lines of opportunity
brighter for the American Negro than here in the land of his nativity."
I bespeak for the book a careful reading by those who are interested in
the history of the Negro in America, and in his present and future.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER I 3
Parents, School and Teacher--Foundation of
the Negroes' Mechanical Knowledge--First
Brick A. M. E. Church--Bishop Allen--Olive
Cemetery--Harriet Smith Home--"Underground
Railroad"--Incidents on the Road--William
and Ellen Craft--William Box Brown.
CHAPTER II 15
Nat Turner's Insurrection--Experience on a
Maryland Plantation--First Street Cars in
Philadelphia--Anti-Slavery Meetings--Amusing
Incidents--Opposition of Negro Churches--Kossuth
Celebration, and the Unwelcome
Guest.
CHAPTER III 29
Cinguez, the Hero of Armistead Captives--The
Threshold of Man's Estate--My First Lecturing
Tour with Frederic Douglass--His "Life
and Times"--Pen Picture of George William
Curtis of Ante-Bellum Conditions--Harriet
Beecher Stowe, Lucretia Mott, and Frances E.
Harper, a Noble Band of Women--"Go Do
Some Great Thing"--Journey to California--Incidents
at Panama.
CHAPTER IV 40
Arrival at San Francisco--Getting Domiciled
and Seeking Work--Strike of White Employees--Lester
& Gibbs, Importers--Assaulted
in Our Store--First Protest from the
Colored Men of California--Poll Tax.
CHAPTER V 51
"Vigilance Committee" and Lynch Law at
"Fort Gunny"--Murder of James King, of William--A
Paradox to Present Conditions.
CHAPTER VI 59
Gold Discovery in British Columbia--Incidents
on Shipboard and Arrival at Victoria--National
Unrest in 1859--"Irrepressible Conflict"--Garrison
and Douglass--Harriet Beecher
Stowe and Frances Ellen Harper--John Brown
of Harper's Ferry--"Fugitive Slave Law"--Flight
to Canada.
CHAPTER VII 74
Abraham Lincoln President--Rebellion Inaugurated--Success
of the Union Army--Re-Election
of Lincoln--Bravery and Endurance of
Negro Soldiers--Assassination of Lincoln--Lynching
Denounced by Southern Governors
and Statesmen--Words of Wisdom from
St. Pierre de Couberton.
CHAPTER VIII 85
My First Entry Into Political Life--Intricacies
of the Ballot--Number of Negro Schools,
Pupils and Amount of School Property in 1898--Amendment
to Constitution and Interview
with Vice-President Schuyler Colfax at Victoria,
B. C.--William Lloyd Garrison, Jr., and
James Russell Lowell on the Right to Vote.
CHAPTER IX 93
Philip A. Bell, a Veteran Editor of the "Negro
Press"--British Columbia, Its Early History,
Efforts for Annexation to the United States--Meeting
with Lady Franklin, Widow of Sir
John Franklin, the Arctic Explorer, in 1859--Union
of British Columbia with the Dominion
of Canada in 1868, the Political Issue--Queen
Charlotte Island--Anthracite Coal Company--Director,
Contractor and Shipper of First
Cargo of Anthracite Coal on the Pacific
Coast--Indians and Their Peculiarities.
CHAPTER X 107
An Incident of Peril--My Return to the United
States in 1869--Thoughts and Feelings En
Route--Entered Oberlin Law College and
Graduated--Visit to my Brother, J. C. Gibbs,
Secretary of State of Florida--A Delegate to
the National Convention of Colored Men at
Charleston, S. C.--"Gratitude Expensive"--The
Trend of Republican Leaders--Contribution of
Southern White People for Negro Education--Views
of a Leading Democrat.
CHAPTER XI 122
President of National Convention at Nashville,
Tenn., in 1876--Pen and Ink Sketch by H. V.
Redfield of "Cincinnati Commercial"--Colored
Leaders Desire to Fraternize for Race Protection--William
H. Grey, H. B. Robinson, and
J. H. Johnson, of Arkansas, Leaders and
Planters--My Arrival at Little Rock, May,
1871--Reading of Local Statutes in the Law
Office of Benjamin & Barnes--"Wheeler &
Gibbs," Attorneys-at-Law.
CHAPTER XII 134
Politics and Politicians--Disruption of the Republicans
in Arkansas--"Minstrels and Brindle
Tails"--Early Canvassing in the South,
with Its Peculiarities--Ku Klux Visits--My
Appointment as County Attorney and Election
as Municipal Judge--Hon. John Allen, of Mississippi,
His Descriptive Anecdote.
CHAPTER XIII 145
Lowering Cloud on Righteous Rule--Comparison
of Negro Progress--Sir Walter Scott in His
Notes on English History--George C. Lorimer,
a Noted Divine--Educational Solution of the
Race Problem--Baron Russell, Lord Chief Justice
of England--Civil War in Arkansas--Expulsion
of Governor Baxter and Instalment
of Governor Brooks at the State Houses--Stirring
Episodes--"Who Shall Bell the
Cat?"--Extraordinary Session of the Legislature--My
Issue of a Search Warrant for the
Seal of the State--Recognition of Baxter by
the President.
CHAPTER XIV 158
Arkansas Constitutional Convention and New
Constitution Adopted--Augustus H. Garland
Elected Governor--My Letter from Madagascar
on Learning of His Demise--General
Grant's Nomination in 1872 at the Academy of
Music, Philadelphia--Oliver P. Morton, of Indiana--William
H. Gray, of Arkansas--R. B.
Elliot, of South Carolina--"Henry at Ajincourt"--Study
of Obsolete Languages Versus
Industrial Education--Views of Lord Rosebery,
ex-Premier of England--Also of Washington
Post--United States Have Supreme
Advantages for the Negro.
CHAPTER XV 173
Presidential Elector in 1876, Receiving the
Highest Vote--President Hayes, His Yearnings
and Accomplishments--Protest Against
Lawlessness by the Negroes in State Conventions--Negro
Exodus from the Southern to the
Western States in 1878--Secretary William
Windom's Letter--Hon J. C. Rapier, of Alabama,
and Myself Appointed by Secretary
Windom to Visit Western States and Report.
CHAPTER XVI 185
Appointed by the President in 1877 Register
of U. S. Lands--Robert J. Ingersoll on the
Benignity of Homestead Law--General
Grant's Tour Around the World and His
Arrival at Little Rock, 1879--A Guest at the
Banquet Given Him--Response to the Toast,
"The Possibilities of American Citizenship"--Roscoe
Conkling's Speech Nominating General
Grant for Third Term--Bronze Medal as one of
the Historic "306" at the National Convention
of 1880--The Manner of General Grant's Defeat
for Nomination and Garfield's Success--Character
Sketches of Hon. James G. Blaine,
Ingersoll's Mailed Warrior and Plumed Knight--Hon
Grover Cleveland.
CHAPTER XVII 195
Honorary Commissioner for the Colored Exhibits
of the World's Exposition at New Orleans,
La.--Neglected Opportunities--Important
Factors Necessary to Recognition.
CHAPTER XVIII 201
Effort of Henry Brown, of Oberlin, Ohio, to
Establish "Schools of Trade"--Call for a Conference
of Leading Colored Men in 1885--Industrial
Fair at Pine Bluff, Ark.--Captain
Thompson, of the "Capital Guards," a Colored
Military Company--Meeting of Prominent
Leaders at New Orleans--The Late N. W.
Cuney, of Texas--Contented Benefactions
from Christian Churches.
CHAPTER XIX 215
The Reunion of General Grant's "306"--Ferdinand
Havis, of Pine Bluff--Compromise and
Disfranchisement--Progress of the Negro--"Decoration
Day"--My Letter to the "Gazette"--Commission
to Sell Lots of the Hot
Springs Reservation--Twelve Years in the
Land Service of the United States.
CHAPTER XX 223
My Appointment as U. S. Consul to Tamatave,
Madagascar--My Arrival in France En Route
to Paris--Called on Ambassador Porter and
Consul Gowdy Relative to My "Exequator"--Visited
the Louvre, the Famous Gallery of
Paintings--"Follies Bergere," or Variety
Theater--The "Dome des Invalids" or the
Tomb of the Great Napoleon--Mrs. Mason, of
Arkansas and Washington, in Paris--Marseilles
and "Hotel du Louvre"--Embarkation
on French Ship "Pie Ho" for Madagascar--Scenes
and Incidents En Route--"Port Said"--Visit
to the "Mosque," Mohammedan Place of
Worship.
CHAPTER XXI 236
Suez Canal--The Red Sea--Pharaoh and His
Hosts--Their Waterloo--Children of Israel--Travel
by Sea--Arrival and Landing at Madagascar--Bubonic
Plague--My Letter From
Madagascar.
CHAPTER XXII 250
Island of Madagascar--Origin and Character
of the Inhabitants--Their Religion and Superstitions--Physical
Appearance of Madagascar--A
Word Painting of Antananarivo, the
Capital, by Cameron--Forms of Government--Queens
of Madagascar--Slavery and Forced
Labor.
CHAPTER XXIII 265
Introduction of the Christian Religion--Printing
the Bible, Edict by Queen Ranavalona
Against It--The New Religion "a Cloth of a
Pattern She Did Not Like"--Asked the Missionaries,
"Can You Make Soap?"--"Dark
Days"--Persecutions and Executions for a
Quarter of a Century--Examples of Christian
Martyrs--Death of Queen Ranavalona--Permanent
Establishment of the Christian Religion--Self-denial
and Heroic Service of the Roman
Catholics--Native Race Protection Committee--Forced
Labor Abolished.
CHAPTER XXIV 282
Cuba and the Philippines--Their Acquisition
Under the Plea of Relief From Spanish Misrule--Aguinaldo,
Leader of the Filipinos--The
Fidelity and Bravery of the American Negro
in the Spanish War--Attestation by Many Witnesses--Industrial
Education--Othello's Occupation
Gone When Polls are Closed.
CHAPTER XXV 298
Opposition Possibly Beneficent--President McKinley's
Order for Enlistment of Colored Soldiers--General
Grosvenor's Tribute--Fifteen
Thousand in the Spanish War--U. S. Supreme
Court vs. The Negro--The Basis of Congressional
Representation.
CHAPTER XXVI 306
Departure from Madagascar--Memories--Governor
General's Farewell Letter--Madagascar
Branch of the Smithsonian Institute--Wild
Animals, a Consul's Burden--Descriptive Letter
to State Department.
CHAPTER XXVII 312
Leave-taking, its Jollity and Sadness--Arrival
at Camp Aden, Arabia--An Elysium for the
Toper--Whisky Was Plenty, But the Water
Was Out--Pleasant Visit to U. S. Consul Cunningham,
of Knoxville, Tenn.--Arrival at
Suez--My Visit to the U. S. Cruiser "New
York"--The Urbanity of Captain Rogers--Suez
Canal--Port Said--"Mal de Mer"--Marseilles
to Paris--Across the English Channel to
London.
CHAPTER XXVIII 320
My First Visit to the Land of Wilberforce
and Clarkson--Excursion on the Thames--Bank
of England--Visited Towers of London--Beauchamp
Tower With Its Sad Inscriptions--Arrival
at New York--National Negro Business
Men's League Convention at Chicago--Booker
T. Washington President--Many Talented
Business Men in Attendance.
CHAPTER XXIX 327
Visit to President McKinley at Canton, Ohio--His
Assassination at Buffalo--The Assassin
Struck Down by James Parker--President's
Death--The Nation in Tears--A Christian
Statesman--A Lover of Justice--Crucial
Epochs of Our Country's History, the Negro
at the Fore.
CHAPTER XXX 336
President Roosevelt--His Imperial Honesty--Ex-Governor
Jones, of Alabama--Advance of
Justice in Our Country--Status a Half-Century
Ago--Theodore Parker's Arraignment--Eulogy
by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
CHAPTER XXXI 343
Booker T. Washington a Guest at the White
House--Northern and Southern Press Comments--The
Latter Not Typical of the Best
Element of Southern Opinion.
CHAPTER XXXII 361
Washington City, the American Mecca--Ante-room
at the White House--The Diary of
an Office Seeker--William, the Innocent--William,
the Croker--Colored People of the
District of Columbia--Colored Press of the District.
CHAPTER XXXIII 269
Howard University--Public Schools--R. H.
Terrell Appointed to a Judgship of the District--Unlettered
Pioneers--Conclusions.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
1. M. W. Gibbs Frontispiece.
2. Richard Allen 8
3. Wm. Lloyd Garrison 18
4. Frederick Douglass 32
5. Booker T. Washington 44
6. H. M. Turner 50
7. Geo. H. White 58
8. J. M. Langston 70
9. Abraham Lincoln 74
10. W. B. Derrick 80
11. Alexander Walters 92
12. H. P. Cheatham 104
13. Edward E. Cooper 118
14. Judson Lyons 128
15. Powell Clayton 140
16. P. B. S. Pinchback 149
17. A. H. Garland 158
18. J. A. Booker 172
19. I. G Ish 175
20. J. P. Green 183
21. P. L. Dunbar 199
22. B. K. Bruce 204
23. T. T. Fortune 210
24. W. A. Pledger 220
25. John C. Dancy 228
26. Abram Grant 253
27. J. E. Bush 263
28. J. P. Robinson 272
29. Martyrs 274
30. Chester W. Keatts 284
31. J. T. Settle 294
32. Justice Harlan 302
33. Charles W. Chestnut 312
34. William McKinley 327
35. James B. Parker 331
36. President Roosevelt 336
37. Secretary Cortelyou 341
38. W. Calvin Chase 367
39. R. H. Terrill 370
CHAPTER I.
In the old family Bible I see it recorded that I was born April 17,
1823, in Philadelphia, Pa., the son of Jonathan C. Gibbs and Maria, his
wife. My father was a minister in the Wesleyan Methodist Church, my
mother a "hard-shell" Baptist. But no difference of religious views
interrupted the even tenor of their domestic life. At seven years of age
I was sent to what was known as the Free School, those schools at that
time invaluable for colored youth, had not graded studies, systematized,
and with such accessories for a fruitful development of the youthful
mind as now exist. The teacher of the school, Mr. Kennedy, was an
Irishman by birth, and herculean in proportions; erudite and severely
positive in enunciation. The motto "Spare the rod and spoil the child"
had no place in his curriculum. Alike with the tutors of the deaf and
the blind, he was earnest in the belief that learning could be
impressively imparted through the sense of feeling. That his manner and
means were impressive you may well believe, when I say that I yet have a
vivid recollection of a bucket with an inch or two of water in it near
his desk. In it stood an assortment of rattan rods, their size when
selected for use ranging in the ratio of the enormity, of the offence
or the age of the offender.
Among the many sterling traits of character possessed by Mr. Kennedy was
economy; the frequent use of the rods as he raised himself on tiptoe to
make his protest the more emphatic--split and frizzled them--the
immersion of the tips in water would prevent this, and add to the
severity of the castigation, while diminishing the expense. A policy
wiser and less drastic has taken the place of corporal punishment in
schools. But Mr. Kennedy was competent, faithful and impartial. I was
not destined to remain long at school. At eight years of age two events
occurred which gave direction to my after life. On a Sunday in April,
1831, my father desired that the family attend his church; we did so and
heard him preach, taking as his text the 16th verse of Chapter 37 in
Genesis: "I seek my brethren; tell me, I pray thee, where they feed
their flocks."
On the following Sunday he lay before the pulpit from whence he had
preached, cold in death, leaving my mother, who had poor health, with
four small children, and little laid by "for a rainy day." Unable to
remain long at school, I was "put out" to hold and drive a doctor's
horse at three dollars a month, and was engaged in similar employment
until I reached sixteen years of age. Of the loving devotion and
self-sacrifice of an invalid mother I have not words to express, but
certain it is, that should it ever appear that I have done anything to
revere, or aught to emulate, it should be laid on the altar of her
Christian character, her ardent love of liberty and intense aspiration
for the upbuilding of the race. For her voice and example was an
educator along all the lines of racial progress.
Needing our assistance in her enfeebled condition, she nevertheless
insisted that my brother and myself should learn the carpenter trade. At
this period in the career of youth, the financial condition of whose
parents or sponsors is unequal to their further pursuit of scholastic
studies, it is not without an anxious solicitude they depart from the
parental roof. For the correct example and prudent advice may not be
invulnerable to the temptation for illicit pleasures or ruinous conduct.
Happy will he be who listens to the admonitions of age. Unfortunately by
the action of response, sad in its humor, too often is: I like the
advice but prefer the experience.
The foundation of the mechanical knowledge possessed by the Negro was
laid in the Southern States. During slavery the master selecting those
with natural ability, the most apt, with white foremen, had them taught
carpentering, blacksmithing, painting, boot and shoe making, coopering,
and other trades to utilize on the plantations, or add to their value as
property. Many of these would hire themselves by the year from their
owners, contract on their own account, and by thrift purchase their
freedom, emigrate and teach colored youths of Northern States, where
prejudice continues to exclude them from the workshops, while at the
South the substantial warehouse and palatial dwelling from base to dome,
is often the creation of his brain and the product of his handiwork.
James Gibbons, of the class above referred to, and to whom we were
apprenticed, was fat, and that is to say, he was jolly. He had ever a
word of kind encouragement, wise counsel or assistance to give his
employees. Harshness, want of sympathy or interest is often the
precursor and stimulator to the many troubles with organized labor that
continue to paralyze so many of our great industrial concerns at the
present time, resulting in distress to the one and great material loss
to the other. Mr. Gibbons had but a limited education, but he possessed
that aptitude, energy, and efficiency which accomplishes great objects,
that men call genius, and which is oftimes nothing more than untiring
mental activity harnessed to intensity of purpose. These constituted his
grasp of much of the intricacies of mechanical knowledge. His example
was ever in evidence, by word and action, that only by assidious effort
could young men hope to succeed in the battle of life.
Mr. Gibbons was competent and had large patronage. We remained with him
until we reached our majority. During a religious revival we both became
converted and joined the Presbyterian Church. My brother entered
Dartmouth College, under the auspices of the Presbyterian Assembly,
graduated and ministered in the church at Philadelphia. After a brief
period as a journeyman, I became a contractor and builder on my own
account. It is ever a source of strength for a young person to have
faith in his or her possibilities, and as soon as may be, assume
mastership.
While remaining subject to orders, the stimulus is lacking for that
aggressive energy, indispensable to bring to the front. Temporary
failure you may have, for failure lies in wait for all human effort, but
sneaks from a wise and unconquerable determination. We read of the
military prisoner, alone, dejected, and despairing, looking to the walls
of his cell; he watches a score of attempts and failure of a spider to
scale the wall, only to renew an attempt crowned with success. The
lesson was fruitful for the prisoner.
Mr. Gibbons built several of the colored churches in Philadelphia, and
in the early forties, during my apprenticeship, he was a bidder for the
contract to build the first African Methodist Episcopal brick church of
the connection on the present site at Sixth and Lombard streets in
Philadelphia. A wooden structure which had been transformed from a
blacksmith shop to a meeting house was torn down to give place to the
new structure. When a boy I had often been in the old shop, and have
heard the founder, Bishop Allen, preach in the wooden building. He was
much reverenced. I remember his appearance, and his feeble, shambling
gait as he approached the close of an illustrious life.
The A. M. E. Church was distinctively the pioneer in the career of
colored churches; its founders the first to typify and unflinchingly
assert the brotherhood of man and the Fatherhood of God. Dragged from
their knees in the white churches of their faith, they met exclusion by
cohesion; ignorance by effort for culture, and poverty by unflinching
self-denial; justice and right harnessed to such a movement, who shall
declare its ultimatum.
Out from that blacksmith shop went an inspiration lifting its votaries
to a self-reliance founded on God, a harbinger of hope to the enslaved.
From Allen to Payne, and on and on along lines of Christian fame, its
missionaries going from triumph to triumph in America, and finally
planting its standard on the isles of the sea.
A distinct line is ever observable between civilization and barbarism,
in the regard and reverence for the dead, the increase of solicitude is
evidence of a people's advancement. Until the year 1848 the colored
people of Philadelphia used the grounds, always limited, in the rear of
their churches for burial. They necessarily became crowded, with
sanitary conditions threatening, without opportunity to fittingly mark
and adorn the last resting place of their dead.
[Illustration: RIGHT REV. RICHARD ALLEN.
First Bishop of the A. M. E. Church.
Founder of that Faith That Once Nestled in a Blacksmith Shop, But Now
Encircles the World.]
In the above year G. W. Gaines, J. P. Humphries, and the writer
purchased a tract of land on the north side of Lancaster turnpike, in
West Philadelphia, and were incorporated under the following act by the
Legislature of the State of Pennsylvania: "An Act to incorporate the
Olive Cemetery Company," followed by the usual reservations and
conditions in such cases provided. Among reasons inducing me to refer to
this are, first, to give an idea of the propriety and progress of the
race fifty years ago, and secondly, for the further and greater reasons,
as the following will show, that the result of the project was not only
a palladium for blessed memory of the dead, but was the nucleus of a
benefaction that still blesses the living.
The land was surveyed and laid out in lots and avenues, plans of gothic
design were made for chapel and superintendent's residence, and contract
for construction was awarded the writer. The project was not entirely an
unselfish one, but profit was not the dominating incentive. After
promptly completing the contract with the shareholders as to buildings
and improvements of the ground, the directors found themselves in debt,
and welcomed the advent of Stephen Smith, a wealthy colored man and
lumber merchant, to assist in liquidating liabilities. To him an
unoccupied portion of the ground was sold, and in his wife's heart the
conception of a bounteous charity was formed. The "Old Folks' Home," so
beneficent to the aged poor of Philadelphia, demands more than a passing
notice.
"The Harriet Smith Home for Aged and Infirm Colored Persons" is a
continuation of a charity organized September, 1864, and the first board
of managers (a noble band of humanitarians) elected. The preamble was as
follows: "For the relief of that worthy class of colored persons who
have endeavored through life to maintain themselves, but who, from
various causes, are finally dependent on the charity of others, an
association is hereby organized." The work of this home was conducted in
a large dwelling house on South Front street until the year 1871, when,
through the munificence of Stephen Smith and his wife, the land on the
corner of Belmont and Girard avenues, previously purchased from the
Olive Cemetery Company, together with a large four-story building,
valued at $40,000, was given to the Board. In 1871 it was opened as the
"Harriet Smith Home," where it still stands as an enduring monument to
the original donors, and other blessed friends of the race, who have
continued to assist with generous endowments. Edward T. Parker, who died
in 1887, gave $85,000 for an annex to the building. Colored people since
its incipiency have given $200,000. The board is composed of white and
colored persons. On a recent visit I found the home complete,
convenient, and cleanly in all its appurtenances, with an air of
comfort and contentment pervading the place. From many with bent and
decrepit bodies, from wrinkled and withered faces, the sparkling eye of
gratitude could be seen, and prayer of thankfulness read; for this
product of a benign clemency that had blessed both the giver and
receiver. There can be no one with filial affection happy in the thought
that it is in their power to assuage the pain or assist the tottering
steps of their own father or mother, but will recognize the humanity,
Christian character, and unselfishness of the men and women organized
for giving the helping hand to the "unfortunate aged, made dependent by
blameless conditions."
During my apprenticeship, aware of my educational deficiencies, having
been unable to pursue a consecutive course of study in earlier life, I
spent much of the night and odd times in an endeavor to make up the
loss. In joining the Philadelphia Library Company, a literary society of
colored men, containing men of such mental caliber as Isaiah C. Wear,
Frederick Hinton, Robert Purvis, J. C. Bowers, and others, where
questions of moment touching the condition of the race were often
discussed with acumen and eloquence, I was both benefited and
stimulated. It was a needed help, for man is much the creature of his
environments, and what widens his horizon as to the inseparable
relations of man to man and the mutuality of obligation, strengthens
his manhood in the ratio he embraces opportunity.
Pennsylvania being a border State, and Philadelphia situated so near the
line separating the free and slave States, that city was utilized as the
most important adjunct or way-station of the "underground railroad," an
organization to assist runaway slaves to the English colony of Canada.
Say what you will against old England, for, like all human polity, there
is much for censure and criticism, but this we know, that when there
were but few friends responsive, and but few arms that offered to succor
when hunted at home, old England threw open her doors, reached out her
hand, and bid the wandering fugitive slave to come in and "be of good
cheer."
As one of the railroad company mentioned, many cases came under my
observation, and some under my guidance to safety in Canada. One of the
most peculiar and interesting ones that came under by notice and
attention, was that of William and Ellen Craft, fugitives from the State
of Georgia. Summoned one day to a colored boarding house, I was
presented to a person dressed in immaculate black broadcloth and silk
beaver hat, whom I supposed to be a young white man. By his side stood a
young colored man with good features and rather commanding presence. The
first was introduced to me as Mrs. Craft and the other as her husband,
two escaped slaves. They had traveled through on car and boat, paying
and receiving first-class accommodations. Mrs. Craft, being fair,
assumed the habit of young master coming north as an invalid, and as she
had never learned to write, her arm was in a sling, thereby avoiding the
usual signing of register on boat or at hotel, while her servant-husband
was as obsequious in his attentions as the most humble of slaves. They
settled in Boston, living very happily, until the passage of the
fugitive slave law in 1850, when they were compelled to flee to England.
The civil war of 1861 and proclamation of freedom followed. In 1870,
arriving in Savannah, Georgia, seeking accommodation, I was directed to
a hotel, and surprised to find the host and hostess my whilom friends of
underground railroad fame. They had returned to their old home after
emancipation. The surprise was pleasant and recognition mutual.
One other, and I shall pass this feature of reminiscence. It was that of
William Brown, distinguished afterward as William Box Brown, the
intervening "Box" being a synonym of the manner of his escape. An agent
of the underground railroad at Richmond, Virginia, had placed him in a
box two feet wide and four feet long, ends hooped, with holes for air,
and bread and water, and sent him through the express company to
Philadelphia. On the arrival of the steamboat the box was roughly
tumbled off as so much dead freight on the wharf, but, unfortunately
for Brown, on the end, with his feet up and head down. After remaining
in such position for a time which seemed to him hours, he heard a man
say to another, "Let's turn that box down and sit on it." It was done,
and Brown found himself "right side up," if not "with care." I was
called to the anti-slavery office, where the box was taken. It had been
arranged that when he arrived at his destination, three slow and
distinct knocks should be given, to which he was to respond. Fear that
he was crippled or dead was depicted in the faces of Miller McKim,
William Still and a few others that stood around the box in the office.
Hence it was not without trepidation the agreed signal was given, and
the response waited for. An "all right" was cheerily given; the lifting
of suspense and the top of the box was almost simultaneous. Out sprang a
man weighing near 200 pounds. Brown, though uneducated, it is needless
to say, was imbued with the spirit of liberty, and with much natural
ability, with his box he traveled and spoke of his experience in
slavery, the novelty of his escape adding interest to his description.
Many similar cases of heroism in manner of escape of men and women are
recorded in William Still's "Underground Railroad."
CHAPTER II.
The immortal bard has sung that "there's a destiny that shapes our
ends." At eight years of age, as already stated, two events occurred
which had much to do in giving direction to my after life. The one the
death of my father, as formerly mentioned; the other the insurrection of
Nat Turner, of South Hampton, Virginia, in August, 1831, which fell upon
the startled sense of the slaveholding South like a meteor from a dear
sky, causing widespread commotion. Nat Turner was a Baptist preacher,
who with four others, in a lonely place in the woods, concocted plans
for an uprising of the slaves to secure their liberty. Employed in the
woods during the week, a prey to his broodings over the wrongs and
cruelties, the branding and whipping to death of neighboring slaves, he
would come out to meetings of his people on Sunday and preach,
impressing much of his spirit of unrest. Finally he selected a large
number of confederates, who were to secretly acquire arms of their
masters. The attack concocted in February was not made until August 20,
when the assault, dealing death and destruction, was made.
All that night they marched, carrying consternation and dread on account
of the suddenness, determination and boldness of the attack. The whole
State was aroused, and soldiers sent from every part. The blacks fought
hand to hand with the whites, but were soon overpowered by numbers and
superior implements of warfare. Turner and a few of his followers took
refuge in the "Dismal Swamp," almost impenetrable, where they remained
two or three months, till hunger or despair compelled them to surrender.
Chained together, they were taken to the South Hampton Court House and
arraigned. Turner, it is recorded, without a tremor, pleaded not guilty,
believing that he was justified in the attempt to liberate his people,
however drastic the means. His act, which would have been heralded as
the noblest heroism if perpetrated by a white man, was called religious
fanaticism and fiendish brutality.
Turner called but few into his confidence, and foolhardy and unpromising
as the attempt may have been, it had the ring of an heroic purpose that
gave a Bossarius to Greece, and a Washington to America. A purpose "not
born to die," but to live on in every age and clime, stimulating
endeavors to attain the blessings of civil liberty.
It was an incident as unexpected in its advent as startling in its
terrors. Slavery, ever the preponderance of force, had hitherto reveled
in a luxury heightened by a sense of security. Now, in the moaning of
the wind, the rustling of the leaves or the shadows of the moon, was
heard or seen a liberator. Nor was this uneasiness confined to the
South, for in the border free States there were many that in whole or in
part owned plantations stocked with slaves.
In Philadelphia, so near the line, excitement ran high. The intense
interest depicted in the face of my mother and her colored neighbors;
the guarded whisperings, the denunciations of slavery, the hope defeated
of a successful revolution keenly affected my juvenile mind, and stamped
my soul with hatred to slavery.
At 12 years of age I was employed at the residence of Sydney Fisher, a
prominent Philadelphia lawyer, who was one of the class above mentioned,
living north and owning a plantation in the State of Maryland. Over a
good road of 30 miles one summer's day, he took me to his plantation. I
had never before been that distance from home and had anticipated my
long ride with childish interest and pleasure. After crossing the line
and entering "the land of cotton and the corn," a new and strange
panorama began to open, and continued to enfold the vast fields bedecked
in the snowy whiteness of their fruitage. While over gangs of slaves in
row and furrough were drivers with their scourging whip in hand. I
looked upon the scene with curious wonder. Three score of years and more
have passed, but I still see that sad and humbled throng, working close
to the roadway, no head daring to uplift, no eye to enquiringly gaze.
During all those miles of drive that bordered on plantations, as
machines they acted, as machines they looked. My curiosity and youthful
impulse ignoring that reticence becoming a servant, I said: "Mr. Fisher,
who are these people?" He said, "They are slaves." I was startled but
made no reply. I had not associated the exhilaration of the drive with a
depressing view of slavery, but his reply caused a tumult of feeling in
my youthful breast. The Turner episode of which I had heard so much, the
narratives of whippings received by fugitives, slaves that had come to
my mother's house, the sundering of family ties on the auction block,
were vividly presented to my mind. I remained silent as to speech, as to
feelings belligerent. A few moments elapsed and Mr. Fisher broke the
silence by saying, "Mifflin, how would you like to be a slave?" My
answer was quick and conformed to feeling. "I would not be a slave! I
would kill anybody that would make me a slave!" Fitly spoken. No grander
declaration I have ever made. But from whom did it come--from almost
childish lips with no power to execute. I little thought of or knew the
magnitude of that utterance, nor did I notice then the effect of its
force. Quickly and quite sternly came the reply: "You must not talk that
way down here." I was kept during our stay in what was known during
slavery as the "great house," the master's residence, and my meals were
eaten at the table he had quit, slept in the same house, and had, if
desired, little or no opportunity to talk or mingle with the slaves
during the week's visit. I did not understand at that time the
philosophy of espionage, but in after years it became quite apparent
that from my youthful lips had came the "open sesame to the door of
liberty," "resistance to oppression," the slogan that has ever heralded
the advent of freedom.
[Illustration: WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON.
"The Great Liberator."
"I Will not Excuse, I Will Not Retreat a Single Inch; I Will Be Heard"
"Emancipation the Right of the Slave and Duty of the Master"--"He Made
Every Single Home, Press, Pulpit, and Senate Chamber a Debating Society
with His Right and Wrong for the Subject."]
As I passed to manhood the object lesson encountered on the Maryland
plantation did much to intensify my hatred of slavery and to strengthen
my resolution to ally myself with any effort for its abolition. The
burning of Pennsylvania Hall by a mob in Philadelphia, in 1838, built
and used by anti-slavery people, the ravages of what was known as the
"Moyamensing Killers," who burned down the churches and residences of
the colored people and murdered their occupants, did much to increase
the anti-slavery feeling.
Old Bethel Church, then the nursery of the present great A. M. E.
Church, was guarded day and night by its devoted men and women
worshipers. The cobble street pavement in front was dug up and the
stones carried up and placed at the windows in the galley to hurl at the
mob. This defense was sustained for several weeks at a time. Every
American should be happy in the thought that a higher civilization is
making such acts less and less frequent. It is not strange that our
present generation enjoying a large measure of civil and political
liberty can but faintly comprehend the condition fifty years ago, when
they were persistently denied. The justice of participation seems so
apparent, it is not easy to fully conceive, when all were refused, in
quite all that were denominated free States.
When street cars were first established in Philadelphia "the brother in
black" was refused accommodations. He nevertheless persisted in entering
the cars. Sometimes he would be thrown out, at others, after being
"sized up" the driver with his horses would leave his car standing on
switch, while its objectionable occupant was "monarch of all he
surveyed."
The "man and brother" finding his enemy impervious to direct attack,
commenced a flank movement. As he was not allowed to ride inside, he
resolved to ride alongside; bought omnibuses and stock and established a
line on the car route at reduced rates. The cars were not always on
time, and many whites would avail themselves of its service. I remember
one of this class accosting a driver: "What 'Bus is this?" The simple
driver answered, "It is the colored peoples!" "I don't care whose in the
---- it is, does it go to the bridge? I am in a hurry to get there," and
in he got. I thought then and still think what a useful moral the
incident conveyed to my race. Labor to make yourself as indispensable as
possible in all your relations with the dominant race and color will cut
less and less figure in your upward grade. The line was kept up for some
time, often holding what was called "omnibus meetings" in our halls,
always largely attended, make reports, hear spirited speeches, and have
a deal of fun narrating incidents of the line, receiving generous
contributions when the horses or busses needed replenishing. But the
most exciting times were those when there had been interference with the
running of the "underground railroad," and the attempt to capture
passengers in transit, or at the different way-stations, of which as
previously stated, Philadelphia was the most prominent in forwarding its
patrons to Canada.
Before the passage of the fugitive slave law, in 1850, if the fugitive
was taken back it was done by stealth--kidnapped and spirited away by
clandestine means. Sometimes by the treachery of his own color, but this
was seldom and unhealthy. The agent of the owner was often caught in the
act, and by argument more emphatic than gentle, was soon conspicuous by
his absence. At others local anti-slavery friends would appeal to the
courts, and the agent would be arrested. Slavery in law being local
before the passage of the "Act of 1850," making it national, we were
generally successful in having the fugitives released. We were
extremely fortunate in having for our chief counsel David Paul Brown, a
leader of the Philadelphia bar, who, with other white friends, never
failed to respond to our call; learned in Constitutional law, eloquent
in expression, he did a yeoman's service in behalf of liberty.
The colored men of Pennsylvania, like their brethren in other Northern
States, were not content in being disfranchised. As early as 1845 a
committee of seven, consisting of Isaiah C. Wear, J. C. Bowers, and
others, including the writer, were sent to the capitol at Harrisburg to
lay a petition before the Legislature asking for enfranchisement and all
rights granted to others of the commonwealth. The grant was tardy, but
it came with the cannon's boom and musketry's iron hail, when the
imperiled status of the nation made it imperative. Thus, as ever, with
the immutable decrees of God, while battling for the freedom of the
slave, we broadened our consciousness, not only as to the inalienable
rights of human nature, but received larger conceptions of civil
liberty, coupled with a spirit of determination to defend our homes and
churches from infuriated mobs, and to contend for civil and political
justice.
They were truly a spartan band, the colored men and women. The naming of
a few would be invidious to the many who were ever keenly alive to the
proscription to which they were subject, and ever on the alert for
measures to awaken the moral sense of the border States.
Meetings were nightly held for counsel, protests and assistance to the
fugitive, who would sometimes be present to narrate the woes of slavery.
Sometimes our meetings would be attended by pro-slavery lookers-on,
usually unknown, until excoriation of the Northern abettors of slavery
was too severe to allow them to remain incognito, when they would reply:
It is a sad commentary on a phase of human nature that the oppressed
often, when vaulted into authority or greater equality of condition,
become the most vicious of oppressors. It has been said that Negro
drivers were most cruel and unsparing to their race. The Irish, having
fled from oppression in the land of their birth, for notoriety, gain, or
elevation by comparison, were nearly all pro-slavery. At one of our
meetings during the narration of incidents of his life by a fugitive,
one of the latter class interrupted by saying, "Aren't you lying, my
man? I have been on plantations. I guess your master did not lose much
when you left." Now, it is a peculiarity of the uneducated, when,
puzzled for the moment, by the tardiness of an idea, to scratch the
head. Jacobs, the fugitive, did so, and out it came. "I dunno how much
he lost, only what master said. I was the house boy, one day, and at
dinner time he sent me to the well to get a cool pitcher of water. I let
the silver pitcher drop in the well. Well, I knowed that pitcher had to
be got out, so I straddled down and fished it up. Master was mad, 'cause
I staid so long, so I up and tells him. He fairly jumped and said "Did
you go down that well? Why didn't you come and tell me and I would made
Irish Mike, the ditcher, go down. If you had drowned I'd lost $800.
Don't you do that agin.""
It is needless to say that this "brought down the house," and shortly
the exit of the son of the Emerald Isle. At another time the interrupter
said: "Will you answer me a question or two? Did you not get enough to
eat?" "Yes." "A place to sleep?" "Yes." "Was your master good or bad to
you?" "Marster was pretty good, I must say." "Well, what else did you
want? That is a good deal more than a good many white men get up here."
The man stood for a moment busy with his fingers in a fruitless attempt
to find the fugitive ends of a curl of his hair, temporarily nonplussed
at his palliating concessions, half apologetically said: "Well, I think
it a heap best to be free." Then suddenly and gallantly strengthening
his defense; "but, look here, Mister, if you think it so nice down
there, my place is still open." The questioner good naturedly joined in
the general merriment.
Very frequently we were enthused and inspired by Frederick Douglass,
Henry Highland Garnett, Marten R. Delaney, and Charles L. Remond, an
illustrious quartet of the hallowed band in the anti-slavery crusade,
whose eloquence, devotion, and effectiveness stood unsurpassed.
There were few, if any, available halls for these meetings. The only
resort was the colored churches. Those under the auspices of white
denominations had members who objected to their use for such a purpose.
Craven and fawning, content with the crumbs that fell from these
peace-loving Christians, who deprecated the discussion of slavery while
they ignored the claim of outraged humanity, these churches were more
interested in the physical excitement of a "revival" than in listening
to appeals in behalf of God's poor and lonely. Their prototypes that
"passed by on the other side" have been perpetuated in many climes, in
those who believe that it is the formalities of contact with the
building that blesses a people and not the Godliness and humanity of the
worshippers that give glory and efficacy to the church. An antagonism
thus created resulted in a crusade against such churches styled
"Come-Outerism," and many left them on account of such apathy to carry
on the warfare amid congenial association.
It has been said that citizenship was precipitated upon the Negro before
he was fit for its exercise. Without discussing the incongruity of this,
when applied to the ignorant native Negro and not to the ignorant alien
emigrant, it may be conceded that keeping them in abject bondage with
no opportunity to protest, made slavery anything but a preparatory
school for the exercises of civic virtues, or the assumption of their
responsibilities. It was not true, however, with the mass in the free,
or many in the slave States. Always akin and adjunct are the yearnings
indestructible in human nature for equal rights. And in every age and
people the ratio of persistency and sacrifice have been the measure of
their fitness for its enjoyment. During 25 years preceding the abolition
of slavery the colored people of the free States, though much
proscribed, were active in their protests against enslavement, seizing
every chance through press and forum "to pour the living coals of truth
upon the nation's naked heart," setting forth in earnest contrast the
theory upon which the government was founded with its administration as
practiced.
In 1848 Philadelphia Square, whereon the old State House of historic
fame still stands, was made resonant by the bell upon whose surface the
fathers had inscribed "Proclaim liberty throughout the world and to all
the inhabitants thereof," and was bedecked with garlands and every
insignia of a joyful people in honor of the Hungarian patriot, Louis
Kossuth. Distinctive platforms had been erected for speakers whose
fatherland was in many foreign lands. Upon each was an orator receiving
the appreciation and plaudits of an audience whose hearts beat as one
for success to the "Great Liberator." The "unwelcome guests," the
colored men present, quickly embraced the opportunity, utilizing for a
platform a dry goods box, upon which I was placed to give the Negro
version of this climax of inconsistency and quintessence of hypocrisy.
This was the unexpected. All the people, both native and foreign, had
been invited and special places provided for all except the Negro, and
on the native platform he was not allowed space. The novelty of the
incident and curiosity to hear what the colored man had to say quickly
drew a crowd equal to others of the occasion. Then, as now, and perhaps
forever, there was that incalculable number of non-committals whose
moral sense is disturbed by popular wrong, but who are without courage
of conviction, inert, waiting for a leader that they may be one of the
two that take place behind him, or one of three or four, or ten, who
follow in serried ranks, that constitute the wedge-like motor that
splits asunder hoary wrong, proximity to the leader being in ratio to
their moral fibre. Most of the audience listened to the utterance of
sentiments that the allurements of trade, or the exactions of society,
forbade them to disseminate.
The occasion was an excellent one to demonstrate the heartlessness of
the projectors, who, while pretending to glorify liberty in the
distance, were treating it with contumely at home, where 3,000,000
slaves were held in bondage, and feeling keenly the ostracism of the
slave as beyond the pole of popular sympathy or national compassion,
with words struggling for utterance, I spoke as best I could, receiving
toleration, and a quiet measure of approbation, possibly on the
supposition, realized in the fruition of time, that such discussion
might eventuate in the liberation of white men from the octopus of
subserviency to the dictum of slavery which permeated every ramification
of American society. I heard Hon. Cassius M. Clay, of Kentucky, sometime
in the forties, while making a speech in Philadelphia, say: "Gentlemen,
the question is not alone whether the Negroes are to remain slaves, but
whether we white men are to continue free." So bitter was the onslaught
on all, and especially on white men, politically and socially, who dared
denounce slavery.
CHAPTER III.
An event that came under my notice of startling character, attracting
national attention, was the arrival of the schooner "Amistad" at
Philadelphia in 1840. This vessel had been engaged in the slave trade.
With a cargo of slaves from Africa was destined for one of the West
India Islands. Cinguez, one of, and at the head of the captives,
rebelled while at sea, killing a number of the crew and taking
possession of the ship.
In the concluding scene of the foregoing drama, Mr. Douglass was an
actor, I an observer. After the decision giving them their liberty, the
anti-slavery society, who had been vigilant in its endeavors to have
them liberated ever since their advent on American shores, held a
monster meeting to receive them.
Frederick Douglass introduced "Cinguez" to the meeting. I cannot forget
or fail to feel the inspiration of that scene. The two giants locked in
each others embrace, looked the incarnation of heroism and dauntless
purpose, equal to the achievement of great results. The one by
indomitable will had shaken off his own shackles and was making slavery
odius by his matchless and eloquent arraignment; the other, "a leader
of men," had now written his protest with the blood of his captors.
Cinguez, with unintelligible utterance in African dialect with emphatic
gesture, his liberty loving soul on fire, while burning words strove for
expression, described his action on the memorable night of his
emancipation, with such vividness, power, and pathos that the audience
seemed to see every act of the drama and feel the pulsation of his great
heart. Through an interpreter he afterwards narrated his manner of
taking the vessel, and how it happened to reach American shores. How,
after taking the ship, he stood by the tiller with drawn weapon and
commanded the mate to steer back to Africa. During the day he complied,
but at night took the opposite course. After sometime of circuitous
wandering the vessel ran into Long Island Sound and was taken possession
of by the United States authorities. Cinguez, as hero and patriot,
ennobled African character.
When majority and the threshold of man's estate is attained, the
transition from advanced youth to the entry of manhood is liable to
casualties; not unlike a bark serenely leaving its home harbor to enter
unfrequented waters, the crew exhilarated by fresh and invigorating
breezes, charmed by a genial sky, it moves on "like a thing of beauty"
with the hope of "joy forever." The chart and log of many predecessors
may unheeded lie at hand, but the glorious present, cloudless and
fascinating, rich in expectation, it sails on, fortunate if it escapes
the rocks and shoals that ever lie in wait. It is unreasonable to expect
a proper conception, and the happiest performance of life's duties at
such a period, especially from those with easy and favorable
environments, or who have been heedless of parental restraint, for even
at an advanced stage in life, there have been many to exclaim with a
poet:
"Ne'er tell me of evening serenely adorning
The close of a life richly mellowed by time,
Give me back, give me back the wild freshness of morning
Her smiles and her tears are worth evening's best light."
Twenty-one years of age found me the possessor of a trade, an
attainment, and a capital invaluable for a poor young man beginning the
race of life. For whether seen smutted by the soot of the blacksmith
shop, or whitened by the lime of the plasterer or bricklayer; whether
bending beneath tool box of the carpenter or ensconced on the bench of
the shoemaker, he has a moral strength, a consciousness of acquirement,
giving him a dignity of manhood unpossessed by the menial and those
engaged in unskilled labor. Let it never be forgotten that as high over
in importance as the best interest of the race is to that of the
individual, will be the uplifting influence of assiduously cultivating a
desire to obtain trades. The crying want with us is a middle class. The
chief component of our race today is laborers unskilled. We will not and
cannot compete with other races who have a large and influential class
of artisans and mechanics, and having received higher remuneration for
labor, have paved the way for themselves or offsprings from the mechanic
to the merchant or to the professional. These three factors, linked and
interlinked, an ascending chain will be strong in its relation, as
consistent in construction.
In 1849 Frederick Douglass, Charles Lenox Remond and Julia Griffith, an
English lady prominent in reform circles in England, attended the
National Anti-slavery Convention held in Philadelphia, and presided over
by that apostle of liberty, Wm. Lloyd Garrison. At its close Mr.
Douglass invited me to accompany him to his home at Rochester, and then
to join him in lecturing in the "Western Reserve."
Without salary, poor in purse, doubtful of useful ability, dependent for
sustenance on a sentiment then prevailing, that for anti-slavery
expression was as reserved as the "Reserve" was Western. I have often
thought of my feelings of doubt and fear to go with Mr. Douglass, as an
epoch in my life's history. The parting of the ways, the embarkation to
a wider field of action, the close connection between obedience to an
impulse of duty (however uninviting or uncertain the outcome), and the
ever moral and often material benefit.
[Illustration: HON. FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
"Sage of Anacostia."
The Most Distinguished Negro of the Race--As Statesman, Editor, Orator,
Philanthropist He Left an Indelible Mark on the Page of His Country's
History--Born in 1817 at Tuckahoe, Maryland--Died February, 1895--He was
Author of "My Bondage and My Freedom," "Life and Times of Frederick
Douglass," and Others.]
Rochester proved to be my pathway to California. Western New York, 50
years ago, then known as the "Western Reserve," was very unlike the
present as to population, means of travel, material developments,
schools of learning, and humanizing influences. Mr. Douglass, in the
Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark., a short time before his death, told
how, in 1849, we there traveled together; that where now are stately
cities and villages a sparsely settled wilderness existed; that while we
there proclaimed abolition as the right of the slave, the chilling
effect of those December days were not more cold and heartless than the
reception we met when our mission as advocates for the slave became
known; churches and halls were closed against us. Stables and blacksmith
shops would sometimes hold audiences more generous with epithets and
elderly eggs than with manly decorum. God be thanked, Douglass, the
grandest of "our grand old men," lived to see "the seeds of mighty truth
have their silent undergrowth, and in the earth be wrought." A family,
however poor, striving as best they may to give the rudiments of
knowledge to their children, should have, if but few, books descriptive
of the hopes and struggles of those no better situated, who have made
impress on the age in which they lived. We seldom remember from whence
we first received the idea which gave impulse to an honorable action; we
received it, however, most probably from tongue or pen. For impressible
youth such biography should be as easy of access as possible.
It has been said that "a man's noblest mistake is to be born before his
time." This will not apply to Frederick Douglass. His "Life and Times"
should be in the front rank of selection for blessing and inspiration. A
blessing for the high moral of its teaching; an inspiration for the
poorest boy; that he need not "beg the world's pardon for having been
born," but by fostering courage and consecration of purpose "he may rank
the peer of any man."
Frederick Douglass, born a slave, hampered by all the depressing
influences of that institution; by indomitable energy and devotion;
seizing with an avidity that knew no obstacle every opportunity,
cultivated a mind and developed a character that will be a bright page
in the history of noble and beneficent achievements.
For the conditions that confronted him and the anti-slavery crusade,
have been well and eloquently portrayed by the late George William
Curtis. That how terribly earnest was the anti-slavery agitation this
generation little knows. To understand is to recall the situation of the
country. Slavery sat supreme in the White House and made laws at the
capitol. Courts of Justice were its ministers, and legislators its
lackeys. It silenced the preacher in the pulpit; it muzzled the editor
at his desk, and the professor in his lecture-room. It sat a price on
the heads of peaceful citizens; robbed the mails, and denounced the
vital principles of the declaration of independence as treason. In the
States where the law did not tolerate slavery, slavery ruled the club
and drawing room, the factory and the office, swaggered at the dinner
table, and scourged with scorn a cowardly society. It tore the golden
rule from the school books, and from the prayer books the pictured
benignity of Christ. It prohibited schools in the free States for the
hated race; hunted women who taught children to read, and forbade a free
people to communicate with their representatives.
It was under such conditions so pungently and truthfully stated that
Douglass appeared as a small star on the horizon of a clouded firmament;
rose in intellectual brilliancy, mental power and a noble generosity.
For his devotion was not only to the freedom of the slave with which he
was identified, but for liberty and the betterment of humanity
everywhere, regardless of sex or color. His page already luminous in
history will continue to brighten, and when statuary, now and hereafter,
erected to his memory, shall have crumbled "neath the beatings of
time;" the good fame of his name, high purpose and unflinching integrity
to the highest needs of humanity, will remain hallowed "foot prints in
the sands of time." Eminently fit was the naming of an institution in
Philadelphia "The Frederick Douglass Hospital and Freedman's School;"
the assuaging of suffering and the giving of larger opportunity for
technical instruction were cherished ideals with the sage of Anacostia;
also the lives of Harriet Beacher Stowe, Lucretia Mott and Francis E.
Harper, and the noble band of women of which they were the type, who
bravely met social ostracism and insult for devotion to the slave, will
ever have a proud place in our country's history. Of this illustrious
band was Julia Griffith, hitherto referred to, a grand representative of
those renowned women, who at home or abroad, did so much to hasten the
downfall of slavery and encourage the weak and lowly to hope and effort.
Thackery has said that, "Could you see every man's career, you would
find a woman clogging him, or cheering him, or beckoning him on."
Having finished my intended tour with Mr. Douglass, and returned to
Rochester, the outlook for my future, to me, was not promising. The
opportunities for advancement were much, very much less than now. With
me ambition and dejection contended for the mastery, the latter often in
the ascendant. To her friendly inquiry I gave reasons for my
depression. I shall never forget the response; almost imperious in
manner, you could already anticipate the magnitude of an idea that
seemed to struggle for utterance. "What! discouraged? Go do some great
thing." It was an inspiration, the result of which she may never have
known. We are assured, however, that a kind act or helpful word is
inseparably connected with a blessing for the giver. To earnest youth I
would bequeath the excelsior of the "youth mid snow and ice," and the
above injunction, "upward and onward;" "go do some great thing."
The war with Mexico, discovery of gold in California in 1848, the
acquisition of new territory, and the developments of our hitherto
undeveloped Western possessions, stimulated the financial pulse, and
permeated every avenue of industry and speculative life. While in New
York State I met several going and returning gold seekers, many giving
dazzling accounts of immense deposits of gold in the new Eldorado; and
others, as ever the case with adventurers, gave gloomy statements of
peril and disaster. A judicious temperament, untiring energy, a lexicon
of endeavor, in which there is no such word as "fail," is the only open
sesame to hidden opportunities in a new country. Fortune, in precarious
mood, may sometime smile on the inert, but she seldom fails to surrender
to pluck, tenacity and perseverance. As the Oxford men say it is the one
pull more of the oar that proves the "beefiness of the fellow;" it is
the one march more that wins the campaign; the five minutes more
persistent courage that wins the fight.
I returned to Philadelphia, and with some friendly assistance, sailed,
in 1850, from New York, as a steerage passenger for San Francisco.
Arriving at Aspinwall, the point of debarkation, on the Atlantic side,
boats and boatsmen were engaged to transport passengers and baggage up
the "Chagress," a small and shallow river. Crossing the Isthmus to
Panama, on the Pacific side, I found Panama very cosmopolitan in
appearance, for mingled with the sombrero-attired South American, could
be seen denizens from every foreign clime. Its make up was a combination
of peculiar attributes. It was dirty, but happy in having crows for its
scavengers; sickly, but cheery; old, but with an youthful infusion. The
virtues and vices were both shy and unblushing. A rich, dark foliage,
ever blooming, and ever decaying; a humid atmosphere; a rotting
vegetation under a tropical sun, while fever stalked on from conquest to
conquest.
The sudden influx, the great travel from ocean to ocean, had given much
impetus to business as well as to local amusements. For the latter,
Sunday was the ideal day, when bull and cock fights secured the
attendance of the elite, and the humble, the priest and the laity.
The church, preaching gentleness and peace in the morning, in the
afternoon her minister, with sword spurred "bolosed" bantams under their
arms, would appear on the scene eager for the fray.
After recovering from the Panama fever I took passage on the steamship
"Golden Gate" for San Francisco. Science, experience, and a greatly
increased demand have done much during the intervening fifty years to
lessen risk and increase the comfort of ocean travel. Yet it is not
without a degree of restless anticipation that one finds himself and
baggage finally domiciled on an ocean-going steamer. Curiosity and
criticism, selfishness and graciousness each in turn assert themselves.
Curiosity in espionage, criticism in observation, while selfishness and
graciousness alternate. You find yourself in the midst of a miniature
world, environed, but isolated from activities of the greater, an
epitome of human proclivities. A possible peril, real, imaginary or
remote; a common brotherhood tightens the chain of fellowship and
gradually widens the exchange of amenities.
We had a stormy passage, making San Diego with the top of smoke stack
encrusted with the salt of the waves, paddle wheel broken and otherwise
disabled, finally arriving at San Francisco in September.
CHAPTER IV.
Having made myself somewhat presentable upon leaving the steerage of the
steamer, my trunk on a dray, I proceeded to an unprepossessing hotel
kept by a colored man on Kearny street. The cursory view from the
outside, and the further inspection on the inside, reminded me of the
old lady's description of her watch, for she said, "it might look pretty
hard on the outside, but the inside works were all right." And so
thought its jolly patrons. Seated at tables, well supplied with piles of
gold and silver, where numerous disciples of that ancient trickster
Pharaoh, being dubious perhaps of the propriety of adopting the literal
orthography of his name, and abbreviated it to Faro.
Getting something for nothing, or risking the smaller in hope of
obtaining the greater, seems a passion inherent in human nature,
requiring a calm survey of the probabilities, and oftimes the baneful
effects to attain a moral resistance. It is the "ignis fatuus" that has
lured many promising ones and wrecked the future of many lives.
The effervescent happiness of some of the worshipers at this shrine was
conspicuous. The future to them seemed cloudless. It was not so with me.
I had a secret not at all complacent, for it seemed anxious to get out,
and while unhappy from its presence, I thought it wise to retain it.
When I approached the bar I asked for accommodation, and my trunk was
brought in. While awaiting this preparatory step to domicile, and gazing
at the prints and pictures more or less "blaser" that adorned the bar,
my eye caught a notice, prominently placed, in gilt letters. I see it
now, "Board twelve dollars a week in advance." It was not the price, but
the stipulation demanded that appalled me. Had I looked through a
magnifying glass the letters could not have appeared larger. With the
brilliancy of a search light they seemed to ask "Who are you and how are
you fixed?" I responded by "staring fate in the face," and going up to
the bar asked for a cigar. How much? Ten cents. I had sixty cents when I
landed; had paid fifty for trunk drayage, and I was now a moneyless
man--hence my secret.
Would there be strict enforcement of conditions mentioned in that
ominous card. I was unacquainted with the Bohemian "song and dance"
parlance in such extremities, and wondered would letting my secret come
out let a dinner come in. Possibly, I may have often been deceived when
appealed to, but that experience has often been fruitful to friendless
hunger.
Finally the bell rang, and a polite invitation from the landlord placed
me at the table. There is nothing so helpful to a disconsolate man as a
good dinner. It dissipates melancholy and stimulates persistency. Never
preach high moral rectitude or the possibilities of industry to a hungry
man. First give him something to eat, then should there be a vulnerable
spot to such admonition you will succeed. If not, he is an incorrigible.
After dinner I immediately went out, and after many attempts to seek
employment of any kind, I approached a house in course of construction
and applied to the contractor for work. He replied he did not need help.
I asked the price of wages. Ten dollars a day. I said you would much
oblige me by giving me, if only a few days' work, as I have just
arrived. After a few moments thought, during which mayhap charity and
gain held conference, which succumbed, it is needless to premise, for we
sometimes ascribe selfish motives to kindly acts, he said that if I
choose to come for nine dollars a day I might. It is unnecessary for me
to add that I chose to come.
When I got outside the building an appalling thought presented itself;
whoever heard of a carpenter announcing himself ready for work without
his tools. A minister may be without piety, a lawyer without clients, a
politician impolitic, but a carpenter without tools, never! It would be
prima facia evidence of an imposter. I went back and asked what tools I
must bring upon the morrow; he told me and I left. But the tools, the
tools, how was I to get them. My only acquaintance in the city was my
landlord. But prospects were too bright to reveal to him my secret. I
wended my way to a large tent having an assortment of hardware and was
shown the tools needed. I then told the merchant that I had no money,
and of the place I had to work the next morning. He said nothing for a
moment, looked me over, and then said: "All right take them." I felt
great relief when I paid the merchant and my landlord on the following
Saturday.
Why do I detail to such length these items of endeavor; experiences
which have had similarity in many lives? For the reason that they seem
to contain data for a moral, which if observed may be useful. Never
disclose your poverty until the last gleam of hope has sunk beneath the
horizon of your best effort, remembering that invincible determination
holds the key to success, while advice and assistance hitherto laggard,
now with hasty steps greets you within the door.
I was not allowed to long pursue carpentering. White employees finding
me at work on the same building would "strike." On one occasion the
contractor came to me and said, "I expect you will have to stop, for
this house must be finished in the time specified; but, if you can get
six or eight equally good workmen, I will let these fellows go. Not that
I have any special liking for your people. I am giving these men all the
wages they demand, and I am not willing to submit to the tyranny of
their dictation if I can help it." This episode, the moral of which is
as pertinent today as then, and more apparent, intensifies the necessity
of greater desire upon the part of our young men and women to acquire
knowledge in skilled handicraft, reference to which I have hitherto
made. But my convictions are so pronounced that I cannot forbear the
reiteration. For while it is ennobling to the individual, giving
independence of character and more financial ability, the reflex
influence is so helpful in giving the race a higher status in the
industrial activities of a commonwealth. Ignorance of such activities
compel our people mostly to engage in the lower and less remunerative
pursuits. I could not find the men he wanted or subsequent employment of
that kind.
All classes of labor were highly remunerative, blacking boots not
excepted.
I after engaged in this, and other like humble employments, part of
which was for Hon. John C. Fremont, "the pathfinder overland to
California."
[Illustration: BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.
"The Sage of Tuskegee."
The Leader of Leaders For Negro Advancement.]
Saving my earnings, I joined a firm already established in the clothing
business. After a year or more so engaged, I became a partner in the
firm of Lester & Gibbs, importers of fine boots and shoes. Just here a
thought occurs which may be of advantage to ambitious but impecunious
young men. Do not hesitate when you are without choice to accept the
most humble and menial employment. It will be a source of pleasure, if
by self-denial, saving your earnings, you keep a fixed intent to make it
the stepping stone to something higher.
The genius of our institutions, and the noblest of mankind will estimate
you by the ratio of distance from the humblest beginning to your present
attainment; the greater the distance the greater the luster; the more
fitting the meed of praise.
Our establishment on Clay street, known as the "Emporium for fine boots
and shoes, imported from Philadelphia, London and Paris," having a
reputation for keeping the best and finest in the State, was well
patronized, our patrons extending to Oregon and lower California. The
business, wholesale and retail, was profitable and maintained for a
number of years. Mr. Lester, my partner, being a practical bootmaker,
his step to a merchant in that line was easy and lucrative.
Thanks to the evolution of events and march of liberal ideas the colored
men in California have now a recognized citizenship, and equality before
the law. It was not so at the period of which I write. With thrift and
a wise circumspection financially, their opportunities were good; from
every other point of view they were ostracised, assaulted without
redress, disfranchised and denied their oath in a court of justice.
One occasion will be typical of the condition. One of two mutual friends
(both our customers) came in looking over and admiring a display of
newly arrived stock, tried on a pair of boots, was pleased with them,
but said he did not think he needed them then; lay them aside and he
would think about it. A short time after his friend came in, was shown
the pair the former had admired; would he like such a pair? He tried on
several and then asked to try on his friend's selection; they only
suited, and he insisted on taking them; we objected, but he had them on,
and said we need not have fear, he would clear us of blame, and walked
out. Knowing they were close friends we were content. Possibly, in a
humorous mood, he went straight to his friend, for shortly they both
came back, the first asking for his boots; he would receive no
explanation (while the cause of the trouble stood mute), and with vile
epithets, using a heavy cane, again and again assaulted my partner, who
was compelled tamely to submit, for had he raised his hand he would have
been shot, and no redress. I would not have been allowed to attest to
"the deep damnation of his taking off."
The Magna Charter, granted by King John, at Runney Mead, to the Barons
of England, in the twelfth century, followed by the Petition of Right by
Charles I, has been rigidly preserved and consecrated as foundation for
civil liberty. The Continental Congress led the van for the United
States, who oftimes tardy in its conservatism, is disposed to give
audience to merit and finally justice to pertinacity of purpose.
In 1851, Jonas P. Townsend, W. H. Newby, and other colored men with
myself, drew up and published in the "Alto California," the leading
paper of the State, a preamble and resolutions protesting against being
disfranchised and denied the right of oath, and our determination to use
all moral means to secure legal claim to all the rights and privileges
of American citizens.
It being the first pronouncement from the colored people of the State,
who were supposed to be content with their status, the announcement
caused much comment and discussion among the dominant class. For down
deep in the heart of every man is a conception of right. He cannot
extinguish it, or separate it from its comparative. What would I have
others do to me? Pride, interest, adverse contact, all with specious
argument may strive to dissipate the comparison, but the pulsations of a
common humanity, keeping time with the verities of God never ceased to
trouble, and thus the moral pebble thrown on the bosom of the hitherto
placid sea of public opinion, like its physical prototype, creating
undulations which go on and on to beat against the rock and make sandy
shores, so this our earnest but feeble protest contributed its humble
share in the rebuilding of a commonwealth where "a man's a man for all
that."
The committee above named, with G. W. Dennis and James Brown, the same
year formed a company, established and published the "Mirror of the
Times," the first periodical issued in the State for the advocacy of
equal rights for all Americans. It has been followed by a score of
kindred that have assiduously maintained and ably contended for the
rights and privileges claimed by their zealous leader.
State conventions were held in 1854, '55 and '57, resolutions and
petitions passed and presented to the Legislature of Sacramento. We had
friends to offer them and foes to move they be thrown out the window. It
is ever thus, "that men go to fierce extremes rather than rest upon the
quiet flow of truths that soften hatred and temper strife." There was
that unknown quantity, present in all legislative bodies, composed of
good "little men" without courage of conviction, others of the Dickens'
"devilish sly" type, who put out their plant-like tendrils for support;
others "who bent the pliant servile knee that thrift may follow
fawning"--all these the make-weight of a necessary constituent in
representative government conservatism. The conservative majority laid
our petition on the table, most likely with the tacit understanding that
it was to be "taken up" by the janitor, and as such action on his part
is not matter for record, we will in this happier day with "charity to
all," over this episode on memory's leaf, simply wrote "lost or stolen."
Among the occasions continually occurring demanding protests against
injustice was the imposition of the "poll tax." It was demanded of our
firm, and we refused to pay. A sufficient quantity of our goods to pay
tax and costs were levied upon, and published for sale, and on what
account.
I wrote with a fervor as cool as the circumstances would permit, and
published a card from a disfranchised oath-denied standpoint, closing
with the avowal that the great State of California might annually
confiscate our goods, but we would never pay the voters tax. The card
attracted attention, the injustice seemed glaring, the goods were
offered. We learned that we had several friends at the sale, one in
particular a Southern man. Now there was this peculiarity about the
Southern white man, he would work a Negro for fifty years for his
victuals and clothes, and shoot a white man for cheating the same Negro,
as he considered the latter the height of meanness. This friend quietly
and persistently moved through the crowd, telling them why our goods
were there, and advising to give them a "terrible letting alone." The
auctioneer stated on what account they were there, to be sold, asked for
bidders, winked his eye and said "no bidders." Our goods were sent back
to our store. This law, in the words of a distinguished Statesman, was
then allowed to relapse "into innocuous desuetude." No further attempts
to enforce it upon colored men were made.
[Illustration: BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER
Born in Newberry, S. C.--Ordained Bishop in 1880--President of Bishop
Council. Home and Foreign Missionary Society and Sunday School Union of
the A. M. E. Church.--From Slave to Statesman--As Soldier, Editor,
Author, Legislator, Orator, and African Explorer--For Vitality and
Ability, Courage and Fidelity, Along so Many Lines, He Stands Without a
Peer.]
CHAPTER V.
A rush to newly discovered gold fields bring in view every trait of
human character. The more vicious standing out in bold relief, and
stamping their impress upon the locality. This phase and most primitive
situation can be accounted for partly by the cupidity of mankind, but
mainly that the first arrivals are chiefly adventurers. Single men,
untrammeled by family cares, traders, saloonists, gamblers, and that
unknown quantity of indefinite quality, ever present, content to allow
others to fix a status of society, provided they do not touch on their
own special interests, and that other, the unscrupulous but active
professional politician, having been dishonored at home, still astute
and determined, seeks new fields for booty, obtain positions of trust
and then consummate peculation and outrage under the forms of law. But
the necessity for the honest administration of the law eventually
asserts itself for the enforcement of order.
It was quaintly said by a governor of Arkansas, that he believed that a
public official should be "reasonably honest." Even should that limited
standard of official integrity be invaded the people with an honest
ballot need not be long in rectifying the evil by legal means. But
cannot something be said in palliation of summary punishment by illegal
means, when it is notorious and indisputable that all machinery for the
execution of the law and the maintenance of order, the judges,
prosecuting attorneys, sheriff and drawers of jurors, and every other of
court of law are in the hands of a despotic cabal who excessively tax,
and whose courts convict all those who oppose them, and exonerate by
trial the most farcical, the vilest criminal, rob and murder in broad
day light, often at the bidding of their protectors. Such a status for a
people claiming to be civilized seems difficult to conceive, yet the
above was not an hypothesis of condition, but the actual one that
existed in California and San Francisco, especially from 1849 to 1855.
Gamblers and dishonest politicians from other States held the
government, and there was no legal redress. Every attempt of the friends
of law and order to elect honest men to office was met at the polls by
vituperation and assault.
One of the means for thinning out the ranks of their opponents at the
polls they found very efficient. It was to scatter their "thugs" along
the line of waiting voters and known opposers, and quickly and covertly
inject the metal part of a shoemaker's awl in the rear but most fleshy
part of his adversary's anatomy, making sitting unpleasant for a time.
There was usually uncertainty as to the point of compass from which the
hint came to leave, but none as to the fact of its arrival. Hence the
reformer did not stand on the order of his going, but generally left the
line. These votes, of course, were not thrown out, for the reason they
never got in. It diminished, but did not abolish the necessity of
stuffing ballot boxes. In the West I once knew an old magistrate named
Scott, noted for his impartiality, but only called Judge Scott by
non-patrons of his court, who had never came within the purview of his
administration, to others he was known as "old Necessity," for it was
said he knew no law. Revolutions, the beneficial results of which will
ever live in the history of mankind, founded as they were on the rights
of human nature and desire for the establishment and conservation of
just government, have ever been the outgrowth of necessity.
Patient in protest of misgovernment, men are prone to "bear the ill they
have" until, like the accumulation of rills on mountain side,
indignation leaps the bounds of legal form and prostrate law to find
their essence and purpose in reconstruction. At the time of which I
write, there seemed nothing left for the friends of law, bereft as they
were of all statutary means for its enforcement, but making a virtue of
this necessity by organizing a "vigilance committee" to wrench by
physical strength that unobtainable by moral right. There had been no
flourish of trumpets, no herald of the impending storm, but the pent up
forces of revolution in inertion, now fierce for action, discarded
restraint. Stern, but quiet had been the preparation for a revolution
which had come, as come it ever will, with such inviting environments.
It was not that normal status, the usual frailties of human nature
described by Hooker as "stains and blemishes that will remain till the
end of the world, what form of government, soever, may take place, they
grow out of man's nature." But in this event the stains and blemishes
were effaced by a common atrocity.
Sitting at the back of my store on Clay street a beautiful Sunday
morning, one of those mornings peculiar to San Francisco, with its balmy
breezes and Italian skies, there seemed an unusual stillness, such a
quiet as precedes the cyclone in tropical climes, only broken
occasionally by silvery peals of the church bells. When suddenly I heard
the plank street resound with the tramp of a multitude. No voice or
other sound was heard but the tramp of soldiery, whose rhythm of sound
and motion is ever a proclamation that thrills by its intensity, whether
conquest or conservation be its mission. I hastened to the door and was
appalled at the sight. In marching column, six or eight abreast, five
thousand men carrying arms with head erect, a resolute determination
born of conviction depicted in linament of feature and expression.
Hastily improvised barracks in large storehouses east of Montgomery
street, fortified by hundreds of gunny sacks filled with sand,
designated "Fort Gunney," was the quarters for committee and soldiers.
The committee immediately dispatched deputies to arrest and bring to the
Fort the leaders of this cabal of misgovernment. The effort to do so
gave striking evidence of the cowardice of assassins. Men whose very
name had inspired terror, and whose appearance in the corridors of
hotels or barrooms hushed into silence the free or merry expression of
their patrons, now fled and hid away "like damned ghosts at the smell of
day" from the popular uprising of the people. The event which
precipitated the movement--the last and crowning act of this
oligarchy--was the shooting of James King, of William, a banker and
publisher of a paper dedicated to the exposure and denunciation of this
ring of dishonest officials and assassins. It was done in broad daylight
on Montgomery Street, the main thoroughfare of the city. Mr. King, of
William County, Maryland, was a terse writer, a gentleman highly
esteemed for integrity and devotion to the best interests of his adopted
State. Many of the gang who had time and opportunity hid on steamers
and sailing vessels to facilitate escape, but quite a number were
arrested and taken to Fort Gunny for trial. One or two of the most
prominent took refuge in the jail--a strong and well-appointed brick
building--where, under the protection of their own hirelings in fancied
security considered themselves safe. A deputation of the committee from
the fort placed a cannon at proper distance from the entrance to the
jail. With a watch in his hand, the captain of the squad gave the
keepers ten minutes to open the doors and deliver the culprits. I well
remember the excitement that increased in intensity as the allotted
period diminished; the fuse lighted, and two minutes to spare; the door
opened; the delivery was made, and the march to Fort Gunny began. A
trial court had been organized at which the testimony was taken, verdict
rendered, and judgment passed. From a beam projecting over an upper
story window, used for hoisting merchandise, the convicted criminals
were executed.
The means resorted to for the purification of the municipality were
drastic, but the ensuing feeling of personal safety and confidence in a
new administration appeared to be ample justification. Much has been
said and written in defense and in condemnation of revolutionary methods
for the reformation of government. It cannot but be apparent that when
it is impossible to execute the virtuous purposes of government, the
machinery having passed to notorious violators, who use it solely for
vicious purpose, there seems nothing left for the votaries of order than
to seize the reins with strong right arm and restore a status of justice
that should be the pride and glory of all civilized people.
But what a paradox is presented in the disregard for law and life today
in our common country, including much in our Southland! It is a sad
commentary on the weakness and inconsistencies of human nature and often
starts the inquiry in many honest minds, as a remedial agency, is a
republican form of government the most conducive in securing the
blessings of liberty of which protection to human life is the chief?
For the actual reverse of conditions that existed in California in those
early days are present in others of our States today. All the machinery
and ability for the just administration of the law are in the hands of
those appointed mainly by the ballot of the intelligence and virtue of
these States, who, if not participants, are quite as censurable for
their "masterly inactivity" in having allowed thousands of the most
defenceless to be lynched by hanging or burning at the stake. That there
have been cases of assault on women by Negroes for which they have been
lynched, it is needless to deny. That they have been lynched for
threatening to do bodily harm to white men for actual assaults on the
Negro wife and daughter is equally true. The first should be denounced
and arrested (escape being impossible) and by forms of law suffer its
extreme penalty. The other for the cause they were murdered should have
the highest admiration and the most sincere plaudits from every honest
man. Is it true that "he is a slave most base whose love of right is for
himself and not for all the race," and that the measure you mete out to
others--the same shall be your portion. All human history verifies these
aphorisms; and that the perpetrators and silent abettors of this
barbarism have sowed to the winds a dire penalty, already being reaped,
is evidenced by disregard of race or color of the victim when mob law is
in the ascendant. And further, as a salvo for their own acts, white men
are allowing bad Negroes to lynch others of their kind without enforcing
the law.
The Negro, apish in his affinity to his prototype in a "lynching bee,"
is beneath contempt.
[Illustration: HON. GEORGE H. WHITE.
Born at Rosedale, North Carolina--Graduate from Howard University in
1877--Practiced Law in all the Courts of his State--Member of House of
Representatives in 1880 and of Senate in 1884--Eight Years Prosecuting
Attorney--Elected Member of the Fifty-fifth Congress as a Republican.
With a Record Unimpeachable.]
CHAPTER VI.
Early in the year 1858 gold was discovered on Fraser River, in the
Hudson Bay Company's territory in the Northwest. This territory a few
months later was organized as the Colony of British Columbia and
absorbed; is now the western outlook of the Dominion of Canada. The
discovery caused an immense rush of gold seekers, traders, and
speculators from all parts of the world. In June of that year, with a
large invoice of miners' outfits, consisting of flour, bacon, blankets,
pick, shovels, etc., I took passage on steamship Republic for Victoria.
The social atmosphere on steamers whose patrons are chiefly gold seekers
is unlike that on its fellow, where many have jollity moderated by
business cares, others reserved in lofty consciousness that they are on
foreign pleasure bent. With the gold seeker, especially the
"tenderfoot," there is an incessant social hilarity, a communion of
feeling, an ardent anticipation that cannot be dormant, continually
bubbling over. We had on board upward of seven hundred, comprising a
variety of tongues and nations. The bustle and turmoil incident to
getting off and being properly domiciled; the confusion of tongues and
peculiarity of temperament resembled the Babel of old. Here the
mercurial Son of France in search of a case of red wine, hot and
impulsive, belching forth "sacres" with a velocity well sustained. The
phlegmatic German stirred to excitability in quest of a "small cask of
lager and large box of cheese;" John Chinaman "Hi yah'd" for one "bag
lice all samee hab one Melican man," while a chivalric but seedy-looking
Southerner, who seemed to have "seen better days," wished he "might
be--if he didn't lay a pe-yor of boots thar whar that blanket whar." Not
to be lost in the shuffle was a tall canting specimen of Yankee-dom
perched on a water cask that "reckoned ther is right smart chance of
folks on this 'ere ship," and "kalkerlate that that boat swinging thar
war a good place to stow my fixin's in." The next day thorough system
and efficiency was brought out of chaos and good humor prevailed.
Victoria, then the capital of British Columbia, is situated on the
southern point of Vancouver's Island. On account of the salubrity of its
climate and proximity to the spacious land-locked harbor of Esquimault
it is delightful as a place of residence and well adapted to great
mercantile and industrial possibilities. It was the headquarters of the
Hudson Bay Company, a very old, wealthy, and influential English trading
company. Outside the company's fort, enclosing immense storehouses,
there were but few houses. The nucleus of a town in the shape of a few
blocks laid out, and chiefly on paper maps, was most that gave promise
of the populous city of Victoria of the present. On my arrival my goods
were sold at great advance on cost, an order for more sent by returning
steamer. I had learned prior to starting that city lots could be bought
for one hundred dollars each, and had come prepared to buy two or three
at that price. A few days before my arrival what the authorities had
designated as the "land office" had been subjected to a "Yankee rush,"
which had not only taken, and paid for all the lots mapped out, but came
near appropriating books, benches, and window sashes; hence the office
had to close down and haul off for repairs, and surveyed lots, and would
not be open for business for ten days. Meanwhile those that were in at
the first sale were still in, having real estate matters their own way.
Steamers and sailing craft were constantly arriving, discharging their
human freight, that needed food, houses, and outfits for the mines,
giving an impetus to property of all kinds that was amazing for its
rapidity. The next afternoon after the day of my arrival I had signed an
agreement and paid one hundred dollars on account for a lot and
one-story house for $3,000--$1,400 more in fifteen days, and the balance
in six months. Upon the arrival of my goods ten days later I paid the
second installment and took possession. Well, how came I to take a
responsibility so far beyond my first intended investment? Just here I
rise to remark: For effective purposes one must not be unduly sensitive
or overmodest in writing autobiography--for, being the events and
memoirs of his life, written by himself, the ever-present pronoun "I"
dances in such lively attendance and in such profusion on the pages that
whatever pride he may have in the events they chronicle is somewhat
abashed at its repetition.
Addison truly says: "There is no passion which steals into the heart
more imperceptible and covers itself under more disguises than pride."
Still, if in such memoirs there be found landmarks of precept or example
that will smooth the ruggedness of Youth's pathway, the success of its
mission should disarm invidious criticism. For the great merit of
history or biography is not alone the events they chronicle, but the
value of the thought they inspire. Previous to purchasing the property I
had calculated the costs of alteration and estimated the income. In
twenty days, after an expenditure of $200 for improvements, I found
myself receiving a rental of $500 per month from the property, besides a
store for the firm. Anyone without mechanical knowledge with time and
opportunity to seek information from others may have done the same, but
in this case there was neither time nor opportunity; it required quick
perception and prompt action. The trade my mother insisted I should
learn enabled me to do this. Get a trade, boys, if you have to live on
bread and apples while attaining it. It is a good foundation to build
higher. Don't crowd the waiters. If they are content, give them a
chance. We received a warm welcome from the Governor and other officials
of the colony, which was cheering. We had no complaint as to business
patronage in the State of California, but there was ever present that
spectre of oath denial and disfranchisement; the disheartening
consciousness that while our existence was tolerated, we were powerless
to appeal to law for the protection of life or property when assailed.
British Columbia offered and gave protection to both, and equality of
political privileges. I cannot describe with what joy we hailed the
opportunity to enjoy that liberty under the "British lion" denied us
beneath the pinions of the American Eagle. Three or four hundred colored
men from California and other States, with their families, settled in
Victoria, drawn thither by the two-fold inducement--gold discovery and
the assurance of enjoying impartially the benefits of constitutional
liberty. They built or bought homes and other property, and by industry
and character vastly improved their condition and were the recipients of
respect and esteem from the community.
An important step in a man's life is his marriage. It being the merging
of dual lives, it is only by mutual self-abnegation that it can be made
a source of contentment and happiness. In 1859, in consummation of
promise and purpose, I returned to the United States and was married to
Miss Maria A. Alexander, of Kentucky, educated at Oberlin College, Ohio.
After visits to friends in Buffalo and my friend Frederick Douglass at
Rochester, N. Y., thence to Philadelphia and New York City, where we
took steamship for our long journey of 4,000 miles to our intended home
at Victoria, Vancouver Island. I have had a model wife in all that the
term implies, and she has had a husband migratory and uncertain. We have
been blessed with five children, four of whom are living--Donald F.,
Horace E., Ida A., and Hattie A. Gibbs; Donald a machinist, Horace a
printer by trade. Ida graduated as an A. B. from Oberlin College and is
now teacher of English in the High School at Washington, D. C.; Hattie a
graduate from the Conservatory of Music at Oberlin, Ohio, and was
professor of music at the Eckstein-Norton University at Cave Springs,
Ky., and now musical director of public schools of Washington, D. C.
In passing through the States in 1859 an unrest was everywhere
observable. The pulse-beat of the great national heart quickened at
impending danger. The Supreme Court had made public the Dred Scott
decision; John Brown had organized an insurrection; Stephen A. Douglass
and Abraham Lincoln at the time were in exciting debate; William H.
Seward was proclaiming the "irrepressible conflict." With other signs
portentous, culminating in secession and events re-enacting history--for
that the causes and events of which history is the record are being
continuously re-enacted from a moral standpoint is of easy observation.
History, as the narration of the actions of men, with attendant results,
is but a repetition. Different minds and other hands may be the
instruments, but the effects from any given course involving fundamental
principles are the same. This was taught by philosophers 2,000 years
ago, some insisting that not only was this repetition observable in the
moral world, but that the physical world was repeated in detail--that
every person, every blade of grass, all nature, animate and inanimate,
reappeared upon the earth, engaged in the same pursuits, and fulfilling
the same ends formerly accomplished.
However skeptical we may be as to this theory of the ancients, the
student of modern history has accomplished little if he fails to be
impressed with the important truth standing out on every page in letters
of living light--that this great world of ours is governed by a system
of moral and physical laws that are as unerring in the bestowal of
rewards as certain in the infliction of penalties. The history of our
own country is one that will ever be an exemplification of this
pre-eminent truth. The protests of the victims of oppression in the old
world resulted in a moral upheaval and the establishment by force of
arms of a Republic in America. The Revolutionary Congress, of which, in
adopting the Federal Constitution, closed with this solemn injunction:
"Let it be remembered that it has been the pride and boast of America
that the rights for which she contended were the rights of human
nature." And it was reserved for the founders of this nation to
establish in the words of an illustrious benefactor, "a Government of
the people, for the people, and by the people"--a Government deriving
all its powers from the consent of the governed, where freedom of
opinion, whether relating to Church or State, was to have the widest
scope and fullest expression consistent with private rights and public
good---where the largest individuality could be developed and the
patrician and plebeian meet on a common level and aspire to the highest
honor within the gift of the people.
This was its character, this its mission. How it has sustained the
character, how fulfilled the mission upon which it entered, the
impartial historian has indited, every page of which is redolent with
precept and example that point a moral.
With the inauguration of republican government in America the angel of
freedom and the demon of slavery wrestled for the mastery. Tallyrand has
beautifully and forcibly said: "The Lily and Thistle may grow together
in harmonious proximity, but liberty and slavery delight in the
separation." The pronounced policy of the best minds at the adoption of
the Federal Constitution was to repress it as an institution inhuman in
its character and fraught with mischief. Foretelling with accuracy of
divine inspiration, Jefferson "trembled for his country" when he
remembered that God was just and that "His justice would not sleep
forever." Patrick Henry said "that a serious view of this subject gives
a gloomy prospect to future times." So Mason and other patriots wrote
and felt, fully impressed that the high, solid ground of right and
justice had been left for the bogs and mire of expediency.
They died, leaving this heritage growing stronger and bolder in its
assumption of power and permeating every artery of society. The cotton
gin was invented and the demand for cotton vaulted into the van of the
commerce of the country. Men, lured by the gains of slavery and
corrupted by its contact, sought by infamous reasoning and vicious
legislation to avert the criticism of men and the judgment of God. In
the words of our immortal Douglass, "To bolster up and make tolerable
what was intolerable; to make human what was inhuman; to make divine
what was infernal." To make this giant wrong acceptable to the moral
sense it was averred and enacted that slavery was right; that God
himself had so predetermined in His wisdom; that the slave could be
branded and sold on the auction block; that the babe could be ruthlessly
taken from its mother and given away; that a family could be scattered
by sale, to meet no more; that to teach a slave to read was punishable
with death to the teacher. But why rehearse this dead past--this
terrible night of suffering and gloom? Why not let its remembrance be
effaced and forgotten in the glorious light of a happier day? I answer,
Why?
All measure of value, all estimates of greatness, of joy or sorrow, of
health or suffering, are relative; we judge by comparison, and if in
recalling these former depths we temper unreasonable criticism of waning
friendships, accelerate effort as we pass the mile-stones of
achievement, and stimulate appreciation of liberty in the younger
generation, the mention will not be fruitless.
But to the resume of this rapid statement of momentous events:
Meanwhile, the slave, patient in his longings, prayed for deliverance.
Truly has it been said by Elihu Burrit that "you may take a man and yoke
him to your labor as you yoke the ox that worketh to live, and liveth to
work; you may surround him with ignorance and cloud him over with
artificial night. You may do this and all else that will degrade him as
a man, without injuring his value as a slave; yet the idea that he was
born to be free will survive it all. 'Tis allied to his hope of
immortality--the ethereal part of his nature which oppression cannot
reach. 'Tis the torch lit up in his soul by the omnipotent hand of Deity
Himself." The true and tried hosts of freedom, represented and led by
Garrison, Douglass, Lovejoy, Phillips, Garnet, Harriet Beecher Stowe,
and Frances Ellen Harper, and others--few compared to the indifferent
and avowed defenders of slavery, welcoming outrage and ostracism, by pen
and on forum, from hilltop and valley, proclaimed emancipation as the
right of the slave and the duty of the master. The many heroic efforts
of the anti-slavery phalanx were not without effect, and determined
resistance was made to the admission of more slave territory which was
in accordance with the "Proviso" prohibiting slavery in the Northwest.
Slavery controlled the Government from its commencement, hence its
supporters looked with alarm upon an increasing determination to stay
its progress.
California had been admitted as a free State, after a struggle the most
severe. Its admission John C. Calhoun, the very able leader of the slave
power, regarded as the death-knell of slavery, if the institution
remained within the union and counseled secession. Washington,
Jefferson, and Madison, in despair at the growth of slavery; Calhoun at
that of freedom. But how could this march of moral progress and national
greatness be arrested? Congress had, in 1787, enacted that all the
territory not then States should forever be reserved to freedom. The
slave power saw the "handwriting on the wall" surround it with a cordon
of free States; increase their representatives in Congress advocating
freedom, and slavery is doomed. The line cherished by the founders, the
Gibraltar against which slavery had dashed its angry billows, must be
blotted out, and over every rod of virgin soil it was to be admitted
without let or hindrance.
Then came the dark days of compromise, the era of Northern fear of
secession, and, finally, opinion crystallizing into legislation
non-committal, viz: That States applying for admission should be
admitted as free or slave States, as a majority of their inhabitants
might determine. Then came the struggle for Kansas. Emigration societies
were fitted out in the New England and Northern States to send free
State men to locate who would vote to bring in Kansas as a free State.
Similar organizations existed in the slave States for the opposite
purpose.
[Illustration: HON. JOHN M. LANGSTON.
Born in Louisa Country, Va.--Educated at Oberlin, Ohio--Member Board of
Health, District of Columbia in 1871--Minister Resident and
Consul-General to Port-au-Prince, Hayti, 1877--Elected to Congress from
Fourth Congressional District of Virginia in 1890--Author of "Freedom
and Citizenship" and "From the Virginia Plantation to the National
Capitol."]
It is not pleasant to dwell nor fitly portray the terrible ordeal
through which the friends of freedom passed. In 1859 they succeeded;
right and justice were triumphant, the beneficial results of which will
reach remotest time. It was in this conflict that the heroism of John
Brown developed. It was there he saw his kindred and his friends
murdered, and there registered his vow to avenge their blood in the
disenthralment of the slave. The compeers of this "grand old man" or
people of the nation could have scarcely supposed that this man,
hitherto obscure, was to be the instrument of retributive justice, to
inaugurate a rebellion which was to culminate in the freedom of
4,000,000 slaves. John Brown, at the head of a few devoted men, at
Harper's Ferry, struck the blow that echoed and re-echoed in booming gun
and flashing sabre until, dying away in whispered cadence, was hushed in
the joyousness of a free nation. John Brown was great because he was
good, and good because he was great, with the bravery of a warrior and
the tenderness of a child, loving liberty as a mother her first born, he
scorned to compromise with slavery. Virginia demanded his blood and he
gave it, making the spot on which he fell sacred for all time, upon
which posterity will see a monument in commemoration of an effort, grand
in its magnanimity, to which the devotees of liberty from every clime
can repair to breathe anew an inspiration from its shrine--
"For whether on the gallows high
Or in the battle's van,
The noblest place for man to die
Is where he dies for man."
The slave power, defeated in Kansas, fearful of the result of the vote
in other territories to determine their future status, found aid and
comfort from Judge Taney, a Supreme Judge of the United States.
Bancroft, the historian, has said: "In a great Republic an attempt to
overthrow a State owes its strength to and from some branch of the
Government." 'Tis said that this Chief Justice, without necessity or
occasion, volunteered to come to the rescue of slavery, and, being the
highest court known to the law, the edict was final, and no appeal could
lie, save to the bar of humanity and history. Against the memory of the
nation, against decisions and enactments, he announced that, slaves
being property, owners could claim constitutional protection in the
territories; that the Constitution upheld slavery against any act of a
State Legislature, and even against Congress. Slavery, previous to 1850,
was regulated by municipal law; the slave was held by virtue of the laws
of the State of his location or of kindred slave States. When he escaped
that jurisdiction he was free. By the decision of Judge Taney, instead
of slavery being local, it was national and freedom outlawed; the slave
could not only be reclaimed in any State, but slavery could be
established wherever it sought habitation.
Black laws had been passed in Northern States and United States
Commissioners appointed in these States searched for fugitives, where
they had, in fancied security, resided for years, built homes, and
reared families, seizing and remanding them back into slavery, causing
an era of terror, family dismemberment, and flight, only to be
remembered with sadness and horror. For had not the heartless dictum
come from a Chief Justice of the United States--the "Jeffry of American
jurisprudence," that it had been ruled that black men had no rights a
white man was bound to respect?
The slave power, fortified with this declaration, resolved that if at
the approaching election they did not _succeed_ they would _secede_.
Lincoln was elected, and the South, true to its resolve, prepared for
the secession of its States. Pennsylvania is credited with having then
made the last and meanest gift to the Presidency in the person of James
Buchanan. History tells of a Nero who fiddled while Rome burned. The
valedictory of this public functionary breathing aid and comfort to
secession, was immediately followed by South Carolina firing on Fort
Sumter, and Southern Senators advised their constituents to seize the
arsenals and ports of the nation. Rebellion was a fact.
CHAPTER VII.
Abraham Lincoln, the President-elect, was the legitimate outgrowth of
American institutions; in him was presented choice fruit, the product of
republican government. Born in a log cabin, of poor, uneducated parents,
his only aids untiring industry, determination, and lofty purpose.
Hewing out his steps on the rugged rocks of poverty, climbing the
mountains of difficulty, and attaining the highest honor within the gift
of the nation--"truly a self-made man, the Declaration of Independence,"
says a writer, "being his daily compendium of wisdom, the life of
Washington his daily study, with something of Jefferson, Madison, and
Clay." For the rest, from day to day, he lived the life of the American
people; "walked in its light; reasoned with its reason; thought with its
powers of thought, and felt the beatings of its mighty heart." In 1858
he came prominently forward as the rival of Stephen A. Douglass, and,
with wealth of argument, terseness of logic, and enunciation of just
principles, took front rank among sturdy Republicans, battling against
the extension of human slavery, declaring that "the nation could not
endure half free and half slave."
[Illustration: ABRAHAM LINCOLN,
The Emancipator.
The Embodiment of Patriotism and Justice. "I hope peace will come to
stay, and then there will be some colored men who can remember that they
helped mankind to this great consummation."]
On the 4th of March, 1861, he took the oath of office and commenced his
Administration. With confidence and doubt alternating, our interest as a
race became intensified. We knew the South had rebelled; we were
familiar with the pagan proverb "Those whom the gods would destroy they
first made mad." We had watched the steady growth of Republicanism, when
a tinge on the political horizon "no bigger than a man's hand," increase
in magnitude and power and place its standard-bearer in the White House.
But former Presidents had professed to hate slavery. President Fillmore
had, yet signed the fugitive slave law; Pierce and Buchanan had both
wielded the administrative arm in favor of slavery. We had seen Daniel
Webster, Massachusetts' ablest jurist, and the most learned
constitutional expounder--the man of whom it was said that "when he
speaks God's own thunder can be seen pent up in his brow and God's own
lightning flash from his eye"--a man sent by the best cultured of New
England to represent the most advanced civilization of the century--we
had seen this brilliant star of anti-slavery Massachusetts "pale his
ineffectual fires" before the steady glare, the intolerance,
blandishment, and corrupting influences of the slave power--and tell the
nation they must compromise with slavery.
When Daniel O'Connell, Ireland's statesman and philanthropist, was
approached in Parliament by West India planters with promises of support
for measures for the relief of Ireland if he would vote in the interest
of slavery in British colonies, he said: "'Tis true, gentlemen, that I
represent a poor constituency--God only knows how poor; but may calamity
and affliction overtake me if ever I, to help Ireland, vote to enslave
the Negro." A noble utterance! Unlike the Northern representatives sent
to Congress, who "bent the pliant, servile knee that thrift might follow
fawning." What wonder our race was keenly alive to the situation? The
hour had arrived--was the man there?
For Abraham Lincoln impartial history will answer "Nor memory lose, nor
time impair" his nobility of character for humanity and patriotism that
will ever ennoble and inspire. Mr. Lincoln was slow to believe that the
rebellion would assume the proportions that it did, but he placed
himself squarely on the issue in his inaugural address: "That he should,
to the extent of his ability, take care that the laws of the nation be
faithfully executed in all the States; that in doing it there would be
no bloodshed unless it was forced upon the national authority." His
patriotism and goodness welling up as he said: "We are not enemies, but
friends, though we may have strained, it must not break our bonds of
affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every
battlefield and hearthstone, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when
again touched by the better angels of our nature."
"But the die was cast;
Ruthless rapine righteous hope defied."
The necessity for calling the nation to arms was imminent on the 15th of
April, 1861; the call for 75,000 men rang like a trumpet blast,
startling the most apathetic. The response from the Northern and
portions of the Southern States was hearty and prompt. The battle at
Bull Run dispelled the President's idea that the war was to be of short
duration. Defeat followed defeat of the national forces; weeping and
wailing went up from many firesides for husbands and sons who had laid
down on Southern battlefields to rest. The great North, looking up for
succor, saw the "national banner drooping from the flagstaff, heavy with
blood," and typical of the stripes of the slave. For 200 years the
incense of his prayers and tears had ascended. Now from every booming
gun there seemed the voice of God, "Let my people go"--
"They see Him in watch fires
Of a hundred circling camps;
They read His righteous sentence
By the dim and flaring lamps."
The nation had come slowly but firmly up to the duty and necessity of
emancipation. Mr. Lincoln, who was now in accord with Garrison,
Phillips, Douglass, and their adherents, had counseled them to continue
urging the people to this demand, now pressing as a military necessity.
The 1st of January, 1863, being the maturity of the proclamation, lifted
4,000,000 of human beings from chattels to freemen, a grateful, praying
people. Throughout the North and wherever possible in the South the
colored people, on the night of December 31, assembled in their churches
for thanksgiving. On their knees in silence--a silence intense with
suppressed emotion--they awaited the stroke of the clock. It came, the
thrice-welcomed harbinger of freedom, and as it tolled on, and on, the
knell of slavery, pent-up joy could no longer be restrained. "Praise
God, from whom all blessings flow," from a million voices, floated
upward on midnight air. While some shouted "Hallelujah," others, with
folded arms, stood mute and fixed as statuary, while "Tears of joy like
summer raindrops pierced by sunbeams" fell.
When Robespierre and Danton disenthralled France, we learn that the
guillotine bathed in blood was the emblem of their transition state,
from serfs to freemen. With the Negro were the antithesis of anger,
revenge, or despair, that of joy, gratitude, and hope, has been memory's
most choice trio.
This master stroke of policy and justice came with telling effect upon
the consciousness of the people. It was now in deed and in truth a war
for the Union coeval with freedom; every patriot heart beat a responsive
echo, and was stirred by a new inspiration to deeds of heroism. Now
success followed success; Port Hudson, Vicksburg, Chattanooga,
Gettysburg, and the Mississippi bowed in submission to the national
power. The record of history affirms subsequent events that during the
ensuing twelve months war measures more gigantic than had been witnessed
in modern times were inaugurated; how the will of the people to subdue
the rebellion crystallized as iron; that General Grant, planting himself
before Richmond, said he would "fight it out on that line if it took all
summer," and General Sherman's memorable march fifty thousand strong
from Atlanta to the sea. General Grant's campaign ended in the surrender
of General Lee, and Peace, with its golden pinions, alighted on our
national staff.
Abraham Lincoln was again elected President, the people seeming
impressed with the wisdom of his quaint phrase that "it was best not to
swap horses while crossing a stream." Through all the vicissitudes of
his first term he justified the unbounded confidence of the nation,
supporting with no laggard hand, cheering and inspiring the citizen
soldier with noble example and kindly word. The reconstruction acts,
legislation for the enrollment of the colored soldier, and every other
measure of enfranchisement received his hearty approval, remarking at
one time, with much feeling, that "I hope peace will come to stay, and
there will be some black men that can remember that they helped mankind
to this great consummation."
Did the colored troops redeem the promise made by their friends when
their enlistment was determined? History records exhibitions of bravery
and endurance which gave their survivors and descendants a claim as
imperishable as eternal justice. Go back to the swamps of the Carolinas,
the Savannahs of Florida, the jungles of Arkansas; or on the dark bosom
of the Mississippi. Look where you may, the record of their rugged
pathway still blossoms with deeds of noble daring, self-abnegation and a
holy devotion to the central ideas of the war--the freedom of the slave,
a necessity for the salvation of free government.
[Illustration: BISHOP W. B. DERRICK.
Born July, 1843, Antique, Bristol, West Indies--Educated at Graceville,
W. I.--Ordained Deacon in 1868, and now one of the Foremost Bishops of
the A. M. E. Church--Noted for Wisdom of Counsel and Great Ability.]
The reading of commanders' reports bring no blush of shame. At the
terrific assault on Fort Hudson, General Banks reported they answered
"every expectation; no troops could have been more daring." General
Butler tells of his transformation from a war Democrat to a radical.
Riding out at early morn to view the battlefield, where a few hours
before shot and shell flew thick and fast, skillfully guiding his horse,
that hoofs should not profane the sacred dead, he there saw in sad
confusion where lay the white and black soldier, who had gone down
together. The appeal, though mute, was irresistible. Stopping his horse
and raising his hand in the cold, grey light to heaven, said: "May my
tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth and my right hand forget its
cunning if I ever cease to insist upon equal justice to the colored
man." It was at the unequal fight at Milliken's Bend; it was at Forts
Wagner and Pillow, at Petersburg and Richmond, the colored troops asked
to be assigned the posts of danger, and there before the iron hail of
the enemy's musketry "they fell forward as fits a man." In our memory
and affections they deserve a fitting place "as those long loved, and
but for a season gone."
Slavery, shorn of its power, nurtured revenge. On the 14th day of April,
1865, while sitting with his family at a public exhibition, Abraham
Lincoln was assassinated, and the nation was in tears. Never was
lamentation so widespread, nor grief so deep; the cabin of the lowly,
the lordly mansion of wealth, the byways and highways, gave evidence of
a people's sorrow. "Men moved about with clinched teeth and bowed-down
heads; women bathed in tears and found relief, while little children
asked their mothers why all the people looked so mournful," and we, as
we came up out of Egypt, lifted up our voices and wept. Our friend was
no more, but intrenched in the hearts of his countrymen as one who did
much "to keep the jewel of liberty in the family of nations."
Since that eventful period the Negro has had a checkered career, passing
through the reconstruction period, with its many lights and shadows,
despite the assaults of prejudice and prescription by exclusion from
most of the remunerative callings and avocations, partiality in
sentencing him to the horrors of the chain-gang, lynching, and burning
at the stake. Despite all these he has made progress--a progress often
unfairly judged by the dominant race. Douglass has pithily said: "Judge
us not from the heights on which you stand, but from the depths from
whence we sprung." So, with a faith and hope undaunted, we scan our
country horizon for the silver lining propitious of a happier day.
Regarding that crime of crimes, lynching by hanging and burning human
beings, a barbarity unknown in the civilized world save in our country,
it is cheering to observe an awakening of the moral sense evidenced by
noble and manly utterance of leading journals, notably those of
Arkansas; the Governor of Georgia, and other Southern Governors and
statesmen, have spoken in derogation of this giant crime.
When others of like standing and State influence shall so pronounce,
this hideous blot upon the national escutcheon will disappear. It is
manly and necessary to protest when wronged. But a subject class or race
does but little for their amelioration when content with its
denouncement. Injustice can be more effectually arraigned by others than
the victim; his mere proclamation, however distinct and unanswerable,
will be slow of fruition. A measure of relief comes from the humane
sympathies of the philanthropist, but the inherent attraction of forces
(less sympathetic, perhaps, though indispensable) for his real uplifting
and protection will be in the ratio of his morality, learning, and
wealth. For vice is ever destructive; ignorance ever a victim, and
poverty ever defenceless. Morality should be ever in the foreground of
all effort, for mere learning or even wealth will not make a class of
brave, honest men and useful citizens; there must be ever an intensity
of purpose based upon convictions of truth, and "the inevitable oneness
of physical and moral strength." St. Pierre de Couberton, an eminent
French writer on education and training, has pertinently said: "Remember
that from the cradle to the grave struggle is the essence of life, as it
is the unavoidable aim, the real life bringer of all the sons of men.
Existence is a fight, and has to be fought out; self-defence is a noble
art, and must be practiced. Never seek a quarrel, but never shun one,
and if it seeks you, be sure and fight to the last, as long as strength
is given you to stand, guard your honesty of purpose, your good faith;
beware of all false seeming, of all pretence, cultivate arduous tasks,
aspire to what is difficult, and do persistently what is uncomfortable
and unpleasant; love effort passionately, for without effort there can
be no manliness; therefore acquire the habit of self-restraint, the
habit of painful effort, physical pain, is a useful one." With such
purpose the Negro should have neither servility, bitterness, nor regret,
but "instinct with the life of the present rise with the impulse of the
age."
CHAPTER VIII.
My election to the Common Council of the City of Victoria, Vancouver
Island, in 1866, was my first entry to political life, followed by
re-election for succeeding term.
The exercise of the franchise at the polls was by "viva voce," the voter
proclaiming his vote by stating the name of the candidate for whom he
voted in a distinct voice, which was audited on the rolls by clerks of
both parties.
Alike all human contrivances, this mode of obtaining the popular will
has its merits and demerits. For the former it has the impossibility of
ballot-stuffing, for the by-stander can keep accurate tally; also the
opportunity for the voter to display the courage of his conviction,
which is ever manly and the purpose of a representative Commonwealth. On
the other hand, it may fail to register the desire of the voter whose
financial or other obligation may make it impolitic to thus openly
antagonize the candidate he otherwise would with a secret ballot, "that
falls as silently as snow-flakes fall upon the sod" and (should)
"execute a freeman's will as lightning doth the will of God." This is
its mission, the faithful execution of its fiat, the palladium of
liberty for all the people. Opposition to the exercise of this right in
a representative government is disintegrating by contention and suicidal
in success. It has been, and still is, the cause of bitter struggle in
our own country. Disregard of the ultimatum of constitutional
majorities, the foundation of our system of government, as the cause of
the civil war, the past and ever-occurring political corruption in the
Northern and the chief factor in the race troubles in the Southern
States, where the leaders in this disregard and unlawful action allow
the honors and emoluments of office to shut out from their view the
constitutional rights of others; and by the criminality of their conduct
and subterfuge strive to make selfish might honest right.
That slavery was a poor school to fit men to assume the obligations and
duties of an enlightened citizenship should be readily admitted; that
its subjects in the Elysium of their joy and thankfulness to their
deliverers from servitude to freedom, and in ignorance of the polity of
government, should have been easy prey to the unscrupulous is within
reason. Still the impartial historian will indite that, for all that
dark and bloody night of reconstruction through which they passed, the
record of their crime and peculation will "pale its ineffectual rays"
before the blistering blasts of official corruption, murder, and
lynching that has appalled Christendom since the government of these
Southern States has been assumed by their wealth and intelligence. The
abnormal conditions that prevailed during reconstruction naturally
produced hostility to all who supported Federal authority, among whom
the Negro, through force of circumstances, was prominent and most
vulnerable for attack, suffered the most physically, and subsequently
became easy prey for those who would profit by his disfranchisement.
The attempt to justify this and condone this refusal to allow the
colored American exercise of civil and constitutional rights is based on
caste, hatred, and alleged ignorance--conditions that are
world-wide--and the measure of a people's Christianity and the
efficiency of republican institutions can be accurately determined by
the humanity and zeal displayed in their amelioration, not in the denial
of the right, but zealous tuition for its proper exercise.
During the civil war the national conscience, hitherto sluggish, was
awakened and great desire prevailed to award the race the full meed of
civil and political rights, both as a measure of justice and recognition
of their fealty and bravery in support of the national arm.
The Freedman's Bureau, Christian and other benevolent agencies were
inaugurated to fit the freedman for the new obligations. Handicapped as
he has been in many endeavors, his record has been inspiring.
Four-fifths of the race for generations legally and persistently
forbidden to learn to read or write; with labor unrequited, a
conservative estimate, in 1898, little more than three decades from
slavery, finds 340,000 of their children attending 26,300 schools and
their property valuation $750,000,000, while in learned professions,
journalism, and mercantile pursuits their ability and efficiency command
the respect and praise of the potential race.
When the amendments were being considered, opinion differed as to the
bestowal of the franchise; many favored only those who could read and
write. The popularity of this phase of opinion was voiced in the
following interview with Hon. Schuyler Colfax, afterward Vice President,
who was at that time Speaker of the lower house of Congress, and was
said to have the "Presidential bee in his bonnet." While "swinging
around the circle" he touched at Victoria, and the British Colonist of
July 29, 1865, made the following mention: "A committee consisting of
Abner Francis and M. W. Gibbs called on Hon. Schuyler Colfax, Speaker of
the House of Representatives of the United States, yesterday morning. On
being introduced by the American Consul, Mr. Gibbs proceeded to say that
they were happy to meet him and tender him on behalf of the colored
residents of Victoria their esteem and regard. They were not
unacquainted with the noble course he had pursued during the great
struggle in behalf of human liberty in the land of their nativity. They
had watched with intense interest the progress of the rebellion and
rejoiced in the Federal success and sorrowed in its adversity. Now that
victory had perched on the national standard--a standard we believe
henceforth and forever consecrated to impartial liberty--they were
filled with joy unspeakable. And he would allow them to say that it had
afforded them the greatest pleasure to observe the alacrity with which
the colored men of the nation offered and embraced the opportunity to
manifest their devotion and bravery in support of the national cause.
"They had full confidence in the magnanimity of the American people that
in the reconstruction of the seceded States they would grant the race
who had proved their claim by the most indisputable heroism and
fidelity, equality before the law, upon the ground of immutable justice
and importance of national safety. Without trespassing further on his
valuable time they would only tender him, as the distinguished Speaker
of the popular house of Congress, as well as the sterling friend of
freedom, their sincere respect and esteem.
"Mr. Colfax, in reply, said he was truly glad to see and meet the
committee and felt honored by the interview.
"For himself he had ever been an enemy of slavery. From his earliest
recollections he had ever used his influence against it to the extent of
his power; but its abolition was environed by so many difficulties that
it seemed to require the overruling hand of God to consummate its
destruction. And he did not see how it could have been brought about so
speedily but for those who desired to perpetuate it by raising
rebellious hands against the nation. Now, with regard to the last
sentiment expressed, concerning reconstruction, he would say that it was
occupying the earnest attention of the best and purest minds of the
nation. Most men were in favor of giving the ballot to colored men; the
question was to what extent it should be granted. Very many good men
were disposed to grant it indiscriminately to the ignorant as well as
the more intelligent. For himself he was not, but among the other class.
If colored men generally were as intelligent as the gentleman who had
honored him with this interview--for he considered the speech he had
just listened to among the best he had heard on the coast--there would
be no trouble; but slavery had made that impossible. He knew that the
President--decidedly an anti-slavery man--was not in favor of bestowing
the franchise on all alike, while Charles Sumner and others favored it.
"The honorable gentleman closed his remarks by desiring the colored
people not to consider the Administration inimical to their welfare, if
in the adjustment the right of suffrage was not bestowed on all, for it
was probable that reading and writing would be the qualification
demanded. He paid a high tribute to the colored people of Washington, D.
C., for their intelligence, moral worth, and industry, and said that it
was probable that the problem of suffrage would be solved in the
District of Columbia. After a desultory conversation on phases of
national status succeeding the rebellion, both parties seeming well
pleased with the meeting, the committee retired."
I did not then, nor do I now, agree with the views of that distinguished
statesman. The benignity of the ballot lies in this: It was never
devised for the protection of the strong, but as a guardian for the
weak. It is not true that a sane man, although unlettered, has not a
proper conception of his own interests and what will conserve them--what
will protect them and give the best results for his labor. You may fool
him some of the time, as you do the most astute, but he will be oftener
found among those of whom Lincoln said "You could not fool all the
time." William Lloyd Garrison, jr., "a worthy son of a noble sire,"
pointedly says: "Whoever laments the scope of suffrage and talks of
disfranchising men on account of ignorance or poverty has as little
comprehension of the meaning of self-government as a blind man has of
the colors of the rainbow. I declare my belief that we are suffering not
from a too extended ballot, but from one too limited and
unrepresentative. We enunciate a principle of government, and then deny
its practice. If experience has established anything, it is that the
interest of one class is never safe in the hands of another. There is no
class so poor or ignorant in a Republic that it does not know its own
suffering and needs better than the wealthy and educated classes. By the
rule of justice it has the same right precisely to give them legal
expression. That expression is bound to come, and it is wisest for it to
come through the ballot box than through mobs and violence born of a
feeling of misery and despair."
James Russell Lowell has said: "The right to vote makes a safety valve
of every voter, and the best way to teach a man to vote is to give him a
chance to practice. It is cheaper, too, in the long run to lift men up
than to hold them down. The ballot in their hands is less dangerous than
a sense of wrong in their heads."
[Illustration: BISHOP ALEXANDER WALTERS.
Born in Kentucky, August, 1858--Educated In the Common Schools of that
State--At Thirty-five Elected Bishop of the A. M. E. Zion Church, Taking
High Rank as a Theologian, Originator and First President of the
National Afro American Council--Thinker, Orator and Leader.]
CHAPTER IX.
Among the estimable friendships I made on the Pacific Coast forty years
ago was Philip A. Bell, formerly of New York City, one of nature's
noblemen, broad in his humanity and intellectually great as a
journalist. As editor of The Elevator, a weekly newspaper still
published in San Francisco, he made its pages brilliant with
scintillations of elegance, wealth of learning, and vigor of advocacy.
To his request for a correspondent I responded in a series of letters. I
forbear to insert them here, as they describe the material and political
status of British Columbia thirty-five years ago--being well aware that
ancient history is not the most entertaining. But, as I read them I
cannot but note, in the jollity of their introduction, the immature
criticism, consciousness of human fallability, broadening of
conclusions, mellowed by hope for the future that seemed typical of a
life career. Like the horse in "Sheridan's Ride," their beginning "was
gay, with Sheridan fifty miles away;" but if they were helpful with a
truth-axiom or a moiety of inspiration--as a view of colonial conduct of
a nation, with which we were then and are now growing in affinity--the
purpose was attained.
At first the affairs of British Columbia and Vancouver were administered
by one Governor, the connection was but nominal; Vancouver Island had
control by a representative Parliament of its own; the future seemed
auspicious. Later they, feeling it "in fra dig" to divide the prestige
of government, severed the connection. But Vancouver finding it a rather
expensive luxury, and that the separation engendered strife and rivalry,
terminating in hostile legislation, determined to permanently unite with
British Columbia.
But alas, for political happiness. Many afterward sighed for former
times, when Vancouver Island, proud beauty of the North, sat laving her
feet in the genial waters of the Pacific, her lap verdant with beautiful
foliage and delicious fruits; her head raised with peerless majesty to
brilliant skies, while sunbeams playing upon a brow encircled by eternal
snows reflected a sheen of glorious splendor; when, conscious of her
immense wealth in coal, minerals, and fisheries, her delightful climate
and geographical position, she bid for commercial supremacy. It is said
of States, as of women, they are "fickle, coy and hard to please." For,
changed and governed from England's Downing Street, "with all its
red tape circumlocution," "Tile Barncal," incapacity, and
"how-not-to-do-it" ability that attached to that venerable institution,
its people were sorely perplexed.
During the discussion which the nature and inefficiency of the
Government evoked several modes of relief from these embarrassments were
warmly espoused, among them none more prominent than annexation to the
United States. It was urged with much force that the great want of the
country, immigration and responsible government, would find their
fulfillment in such an alliance. All that seemed wanted was the "hour
and the man." The man was considered present in Leonard McClure, editor
of a local, and afterward on the editorial staff of the San Francisco
Times. He was a man of rare ability, a terse writer, and with force of
logic labored assiduously to promote annexation. But the "hour" was "non
est." For while it was quite popular and freely discussed upon the forum
and street, influential classes declined to commit themselves to the
scheme, the primary step necessary before presentation to the respective
Governments. Among the opposition to annexation, naturally, were the
official class. These gentry being in no way responsible to the people,
an element ever of influence, and believing that by such an alliance
they would find their "occupation gone," gave it no quarter. Added to
these was another possessed of the prestige and power that wealth
confers--very conservative, timid, cautious, self-satisfied, and
dreading innovations of popular rule, but especially republicanism. Amid
these two classes, and sprinkled among the rank and file, was found a
sentiment extremely patriotic, with those who saw nothing worth living
for outside of the purview of the "tight little island."
There seems a destiny in the propriety of territory changing dominion.
God seems to have given this beautiful earth, with its lands, to be
utilized and a source of blessing, not to be locked by the promptings of
avarice nor the clog of incapacity; that it should be occupied by those
who, either by the accident of locality or superior ability, can make it
the most efficient in development. There should be, and usually is,
regard for acquired rights, save in the case of Africans, Indians, or
other weak peoples, when cupidity and power hold sweet converse. Nor
should we slightly estimate the feeling of loyalty to the land of birth
and the hearths of our fathers, the impulse that nerves the arm to
strike, and the soul to dare; that brings to our country's altar all
that we have of life to repel the invader of our homes or the usurper of
our liberties. That has given to the world a Washington, a Toussant, a
Bozzaris--a loyalty that will ever stand with cloven helmet and crimson
battle-ax in the van of civilization and progress. But, like other
ennobling sentiments, it can be perverted, allowing it to permeate every
view of government, finding its ultimatum in the conclusion that, if
government is despotic or inefficient, it is to be endured and not
removed. Such patriots are impressed with the conviction that the people
were made for governments, and not governments for the people. A
celebrated poet has said--
"Our country's claim is fealty,
I grant you so; but then
Before man made us citizens
Great Nature made us men."
Men with essential wonts and laudable aspirations, the attainment of
which can be accelerated by the fostering love and enlightened zeal of a
progressive government.
In 1859 at Esquimault, the naval station for British Columbia, I had a
pleasant meeting with Lady Franklin, widow of Sir John Franklin, the
Arctic explorer, who sailed in 1845 and was supposed to have perished in
1847. With a woman's devotion, after many years of absence, she was
still in quest, hoping, from ship officer or seaman of her Majesty's
service, some ray of light would yet penetrate the gloom which
surrounded his "taking off" in that terra incognito of the North pole,
whose attraction for the adventurer in search of scientific and
geographical data in the mental world is akin to its magnetic attraction
in the physical. To her no tidings came, but still lingered "hope, the
balm and life-blood of the soul."
In 1868 the union of British Columbia with the Dominion of Canada was
the political issue, absorbing all others. But the allurements of its
grandeur and the magnitude of promised results were insufficient to
allay opposition, ever encountered on proposal to change a
constitutional polity by those at the time enjoying official honors or
those who benefit through contracts or trade, and are emphatic in their
protest; these, however, constitute an element that is unwittingly the
safety valve of constitutional government. Wherever the people rule the
public welfare is ever endangered whenever radical changes are to be
introduced, unaccompanied with a vigorous opposition. A healthy
opposition is the winnowing fan that separates the politician's chaff
from the patriot's wheat, presenting the most desirable of the
substantial element needed. At the convention in 1868 at Fort Yale,
called by A. Decosmos, editor of The British Colonist, and others, for
the purpose of getting an expression of the people of British Columbia
regarding union with the Dominion of Canada (and of which the writer was
a delegate), the reduction of liabilities, the lessening of taxation,
increase of revenue, restriction of expenditure, and the enlargement of
the people's liberties were the goal, all of which have been attained
since entrance to the Dominion, which has become a bright jewel in his
Majesty's Crown, reflecting a civilization, liberal and progressive, of
a loyal, happy people.
The "British American Act," which created the Dominion of Canada,
differs from the Constitution of the United States in important
particulars. It grants to the Dominional, as well as the provincial
Legislatures the "want of confidence principle," by which an
objectionable ministry can be immediately removed; at the same time
centralizing the national authority as a guard against the heresy of
"State rights" superiority. Among the terms stipulated, the Dominion was
to assume the colonial debt of British Columbia, amounting to over two
million dollars; the building of a road from the Atlantic to the Pacific
within a stipulated time. The alliance, however, contained more
advantage than the ephemeral assistance of making a road or the
assumption of a debt, for with confederation came the abolition of the
"one-man system of government" and in its place a responsible one, with
freedom of action for enterprise, legislation to encourage development,
and assist budding industries; the permanent establishment of schools,
and the disbursement of revenue in accordance with popular will.
It is ever and ever true that "right is of no sex, and truth of no
color." The liberal ideas, ever struggling for utterance and ascendancy
under every form of government, are not the exclusive property of any
community or nation, but the heritage of mankind, and their victories
are ever inspiring. For, as the traveler sometimes ascends the hill to
determine his bearings, refresh his vision, and invigorate himself for
greater endeavors, so we, by sometimes looking beyond the sphere of our
own local activities, obtain higher views of the breadth and magnitude
of the principles we cherish, and perceive that freedom's battle is
identical wherever waged, whether her sons fight to abolish the relics
of feudalism or to possess the ballot, the reflex influence of their
example is mutually beneficial.
But of the Dominion of Canada, who shall write its "rise, decline, and
fall?" Springing into existence in a day, with a population of 4,000,000
people--a number larger than that possessed by the United States when
they commenced their great career--its promise is pregnant with benign
probabilities. May it be the fruition of hope that the banner of the
Dominion and the flag of our Republic, locked and interlocked, may go
forward in generous rivalry to bless mankind.
The most rapid instrumentalities in the development of a new country are
the finding and prospecting for mineral deposits. The discovery of large
deposits of gold in the quartz and alluvial area of British Columbia in
1858 was the incipiency of the growth and prosperity it now enjoys. But
although the search for the precious is alluring, the mining of the
grosser metals and minerals, such as iron, lead, coal, and others, are
much more reliable for substantial results.
The only mine of importance in British Columbia previous to 1867 was at
Naniamo, where there was a large output of bituminous coal. In that year
anthracite was discovered by Indians building fire on a broken vein that
ran from Mt. Seymour, on Queen Charlotte Island, in the North Pacific.
It was a high grade of coal, and on account of its density and burning
without flame, was the most valuable for smelting and domestic purposes.
A company had been formed at Victoria which had spent $60,000
prospecting for an enduring and paying vein, and thereafter prepared for
development by advertising for tenders to build railroad and wharfs for
shipping. Being a large shareholder in the company, I resigned as a
director and bid. It was not the lowest, but I was awarded the contract.
The Hudson Bay Co. steamship Otter, having been chartered January, 1869,
with fifty men, comprising surveyor, carpenters, blacksmiths, and
laborers, with timber, rails, provisions, and other necessaries for the
work I embarked at Victoria. Queen Charlotte Island was at that time
almost a "terra incognito," sparsely inhabited solely by scattered
tribes of Indians on the coast lines, which were only occasionally
visited by her Majesty's ships for discovery and capture of small craft
engaged in the whisky trade.
Passing through the Straits of Georgia, stopping at Fort Simpson, and
then to Queen Charlotte Island, entering the mouth of Skidegate River, a
few miles up, we reached the company's quarters, consisting of several
wooden buildings for residence, stores, shops, etc. At the mouth and
along the river were several Indian settlements, comprising huts, the
sides of which were of rough riven planks, with roof of leaves of a
tough, fibrous nature. At the crest was an opening for the escape of
smoke from fires built on the ground in the center of the enclosure. As
the ship passed slowly up the river we were hailed by the shouting of
the Indians, who ran to the river side, got into their canoes and
followed in great numbers until we anchored. They then swarmed around
and over the ship, saluting the ship's company as "King George's men,"
for such the English are known and called by them. They were peaceful
and docile, lending ready hands to our landing and afterward to the
cargo. I was surprised, while standing on the ship, to hear my name
called by an Indian in a canoe at the side, coupled with encomiums of
the native variety, quite flattering. It proved to be one who had been a
domestic in my family at Victoria. He gave me kind welcome, not to be
ignored, remembering that I was in "the enemy's country," so to speak.
Besides, such a reception was so much the more desirable, as I was
dependent upon native labor for excavating and transportation of heavy
material along the line of the road. While their work was not despatched
with celerity of trained labor, still, as is general with labor, they
earned all they got. "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin." I
found many apt, some stupid; honesty and dishonesty in usual quantities,
with craft peculiar to savage life.
Their mode of stealing by stages was peculiar. The thing coveted was
first hid nearby; if no inquiry was made for a period deemed
sufficiently long the change of ownership became complete and its
removal to their own hut followed, to be disposed of when opportunity
offered. If you had a particle of evidence and made a positive
accusation, with the threat of "King George's man-of-war," it was likely
to be forthcoming by being placed secretly nearby its proper place. But
through it we see the oneness of human frailty, whether in the watered
stock of the corporation or that of its humble servitor the milkman,
there is kinship. To get something for nothing is the "ignis fatuus"
ever in the lead. My experience during a year's stay on the island, and
constant intercourse with the natives, impressed me more and more with
the conviction that we are all mainly the creatures of environments;
yet through all the strata and fiber of human nature there is a chord
that beats responsive to kindness--a "language that the dumb can speak,
and that the deaf can understand."
The English mode of dealing with semi-civilized dependents is vastly
different from ours. While vigorously administering the law for proper
government, protection of life, and suppression of debauchery by
unscrupulous traders, they inspired respect for the laws and the love of
their patrons. Uprisings and massacres among Indians in her Majesty's
dominions are seldom, if ever, to be chronicled. Many of our Indian wars
will remain a blot on the page of impartial history, superinduced, as
they were, by wanton murder or the covet of lands held by them by sacred
treaties, which should have been as sacredly inviolate. Followed by
decimation of tribes by toleration of the whisky trade and the
conveyance of loathsome disease. The climate of the island was much more
pleasant than expected. The warm ocean currents on the Pacific temper
the atmosphere, rendering it more genial than the same degree of
latitude on the Atlantic. A few inches of snow, a thin coat of ice on
the river, were the usual attendants of winter. But more frequently our
camp was overhung by heavy clouds, broken by Mt. Seymour, precipitating
much rain.
[Illustration: HON. HENRY P. CHEATHAM,
Late Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia. Born in North
Carolina Forty Odd Years Ago--Educated in Public Schools and "Shaw
University"--Register of Deeds for his County--Elected to the
Fifty-first and Fifty-second Congress--Able and Progressive.]
After being domiciled we proceeded with the resident superintendent to
view the company's property, comprising several thousand acres. Rising
in altitude, and on different levels, as we approached Mt. Seymour,
croppings of coal were quite frequent, the broken and scattered veins
evidencing volcanic disturbance. The vein most promising was several
hundred feet above the level of the sea, and our intended wharf survey
was made, which showed heavy cuttings and blasting to obtain grade for
the road. The work was pushed with all the vigor the isolated locality
and climatic conditions allowed. Rain almost incessant was a great
impediment, as well as were the occasional strikes of the Indian labor,
which was never for more wages, but for more time. The coal from the
croppings which had been at first obtained for testing, had been carried
by them in bags, giving them in the "coin of the realm" so many pieces
of tobacco for each bag delivered on the ship. There was plenty of time
lying around on those trips, and they took it. On the advent of the new
era they complained that "King George men" took all the time and gave
them none, so they frequently quit to go in quest. The nativity of my
skilled labor was a piece of national patchwork--a composite of the
canny Scotch, the persistent and witty Irish, the conservative but
indomitable English, the effervescent French, the phlegmatic German, and
the irascible Italian. I found this variety beneficial, for the usual
national and race bias was sufficiently in evidence to preclude a
combination to retard the work. I had three Americans, that were neither
white nor colored; they were born black; one of them--Tambry, the
cook--will ever have my grateful remembrance for his fatherly kindness
and attention during an illness.
The conditions there were such that threw many of my men off their feet.
Women and liquor had much the "right of way." I was more than ever
impressed with the belief that there was nothing so conclusive to a
worthy manhood as self-restraint, both morally and physically, and the
more vicious and unrestraining the environment the greater the
achievement. Miners had been at work placing many tons of coal at the
mouth of the mine during the making of the road, the grade of which was
of two elevations, one from the mine a third of the distance,
terminating at a chute, from which the coal fell to cars on the lower
level, and from thence to the wharf. After the completion of the road
and its acceptance by the superintendent and the storage of a cargo of
coal on the wharf, the steamer Otter arrived, was loaded, and despatched
to San Francisco, being the first cargo of anthracite coal ever
unearthed on the Pacific seaboard. The superintendent, having notified
the directors at Victoria of his intention to return, they had appointed
me to assume the office. I was so engaged, preparing for the next
shipment on the steamer.
CHAPTER X.
My sojourn on the island was not without its vicissitudes and dangers,
and one of the latter I shall ever remember--one mingled, as it was,
with antics of Neptune, that capricious god of the ocean, and
resignation to what seemed to promise my end with all sublime things.
The stock of oil brought for lubricating cars and machinery having been
exhausted, I started a beautiful morning in a canoe with three Indians
for their settlement at the mouth of Skidegate River for a temporary
supply. After a few hours' paddling, gliding down the river serenely,
the wind suddenly arose, increasing in force as we approached the mouth
in the gulf. The high walls of the river sides afforded no opportunity
to land. The storm continued to increase in violence, bringing billows
of rough sea from the ocean, our canoe dancing like a feather, one
moment on a high crest by its skyward leap, and in the next to an abyss
deep, with walls of sea on either side, shutting out a view of the
horizon, while I, breathless with anxious hope, waited for the
succeeding wave to again lift the frail bark. The better to preserve
the equilibrium of the canoe--a conveyance treacherous at the
best--wrapped in a blanket in the bottom of the canoe I laid, looking
into the faces of the Indians, contorted by fright, and listened to
their peculiar and mournful death wail, "while the gale whistled aloft
his tempest tune."
I afterward learned that they had a superstition based upon the loss of
many of their tribe under like conditions, that escape was impossible.
The alarm and distrust in men, aquatic from birth, in their own waters
was to me appalling. I seemed to have "looked death in the face"--and
what a rush of recollections that had been long forgotten, of actions
good and bad, the latter seeming the most, hurried, serried, but
distinct through my excited brain; then a thought, bringing a calm
content, that "To every man upon this earth death cometh soon or late;"
and with a fervent resignation of myself to God and to what I believed
to be inevitable; then a lull in the wind, and, after many attempts, we
were able to cross the mouth of the river to the other side--the place
of destination.
In 1869 I left Queen Charlotte Island and returned to Victoria; settled
my business preparatory to joining my family, then at Oberlin, Ohio. It
was not without a measure of regret that I anticipated my departure.
There I had lived more than a decade; where the geniality of the climate
was excelled only by the graciousness of the people; there unreservedly
the fraternal grasp of brotherhood; there I had received social and
political recognition; there my domestic ties had been intensified by
the birth of my children, a warp and woof of consciousness that time
cannot obliterate. Then regret modified, as love of home and country
asserted itself.
"Breathes there a man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said:
'This is my native land'--
Whose heart has not within him burned
As homeward footsteps he has turned
From wandering on a foreign strand?"
En route my feelings were peculiar. A decade had passed, fraught with
momentous results in the history of the nation. I had left California
disfranchised and my oath denied in a "court of justice" (?); left my
country to all appearances enveloped in a moral gloom so dense as to
shut out the light of promise for a better civil and political status.
The star of hope glimmered but feebly above the horizon of contumely and
oppression, prophetic of the destruction of slavery and the
enfranchisement of the freedman. I was returning, and on touch of my
country's soil to have a new baptism through the all-pervading genius of
universal liberty. I had left politically ignoble; I was returning
panoplied with the nobility of an American citizen. Hitherto regarded as
a pariah, I had neither rejoiced at its achievement nor sorrowed for
its adversity; now every patriotic pulse beat quicker and heart throb
warmer, on realization that my country gave constitutional guarantee for
the common enjoyment of political and civil liberty, equality before the
law--inspiring a dignity of manhood, of self-reliance and opportunity
for elevation hitherto unknown.
Then doubt, alternating, would present the immense problems awaiting
popular solution. Born in the seething cauldron of civil war, they had
been met in the arena of fervid Congressional debate and political
conflict. The amendments to the Constitution had been passed, but was
their inscription a record of the crystallization of public sentiment?
Subsequent events have fully shown that only to the magnanimity and
justice of the American people and the fruition of time can they be
commended. Not to believe that these problems will be rightfully solved
is to doubt not only the efficacy of the basic principles of our
Government, but the divinity of truth and justice. To these rounds of
hope's ladder, while eager in obtaining wisdom, the Negro should cling
with tenacity, with faith "a higher faculty than reason" unconquerable.
Having resolved to locate in some part of the South for the purpose of
practicing law, I had while in Victoria read the English Common Law, the
basis of our country's jurisprudence, under Mr. Ring, an English
barrister. Soon after my arrival in Oberlin, Ohio, where my family,
four years before, had preceded me, I entered the law department of an
Oberlin business college, and after graduation proceeded South, the
first time since emancipation. In an early chapter I described my first
contact with and impressions of slavery, when a lad; then the
hopelessness of abject servitude and consciousness of unrequited toil
had its impress on the brow of the laborer. Now cheerfulness, a spirit
of industry, enterprise, and fraternal feeling replaced the stagnant
humdrum of slavery. Nor was progress observable only among the freedmen.
Many evidences of kindness and sympathy were shown and expressed by
former owners for the moral and mental advancement of their former
bondsmen, which, to a great degree, unfortunately, was counterbalanced
by violence and persecution.
My brother, Jonathan C. Gibbs, was then Secretary of State of Florida,
with Governor Hart as executive. He had had the benefit of a collegiate
education, having graduated at Dartmouth, New Haven, and had for some
years filled the pulpit as a Presbyterian minister. The stress of
reconstruction and obvious necessity for ability in secular matters
induced him to enter official life. Naturally indomitable, he more than
fulfilled the expectations of his friends and supporters by rare ability
as a thinker and speaker, with unflinching fidelity to his party
principles. I found him at Tallahassee, the capital, in a
well-appointed residence, but his sleeping place in the attic
contracted, and, as I perceived, considerable of an arsenal. He said
that for better vantage it had been his resting place for several
months, as his life had been threatened by the "Ku Klux," that band of
midnight assassins whose deeds of blood and carnage darken so many pages
of our national history, and was the constant terror of white and black
adherents to the national Government's policy of enfranchisement. He was
hopeful of better conditions in Florida, and introduced me to Governor
Hart. Both urged me to locate in the State, promising me their support.
I highly appreciated the affection of the one and the proffered
friendship of the other. But the feeling paramount was that my brother
had "won his spurs" by assiduity and fidelity through the scathing and
fiery ordeal of those troublesome times; that it would ill become me to
profit or serenely rest beneath the laurels he had won. It was the last
interview or sight of my brother. Subsequently after a three hours'
speech, he went to his office and suddenly died of apoplexy.
I continued my tour of observation, and, having been appointed a
delegate from Ohio to a national convention to be held in Charleston,
South Carolina, I attended. It was the first assembly of the kind at
which I had been present since emancipation. I had hitherto met many
conventions of colored men having for their object the amelioration of
oppressive conditions. This gathering was unlike any similar meeting.
The deliberations of the convention presented a combination of a strong
intellectual grasp of present needs and their solution, with much
uninformed groping and strife for prominence, features of procedure I
have observed not confined to Negro assemblies.
The majority were unlettered, but earnest in their mental toiling for
protection to life and equality before the law. Hitherto the purpose had
been to make earnest appeals to the law-making power for such
legislation as would abolish slavery and award equal justice--the first
supported by the national conscience, but mainly as a military
necessity, was a "fait accompli;" the other had been legislatively
awarded, but for its realization much more was necessary than its simple
identification on the statute books of a nation, when public sentiment
is law. More than a third of a century has now passed, enabling a view
more dispassionate and accurate of the conditions surrounding the
freedmen directly after emancipation and the instrumentalities designed
for fitting him for citizenship.
It is not surprising, neither is he blameworthy, if in the incipiency of
joy for freedom bestowed he could not properly estimate the factors
necessary to form an homogenous citizenship. The ways for two centuries
had been divergent paths. The dominant claiming and exercising, as an
heirloom, every civil and political right; the subordinate, with
knowledge the most meager of their application or limits, by compulsion
was made to concede the claim. Neither is it singular that participation
in the exercise of these rights by the freedman should have created a
determined opposition in a majority of the former, who claimed their
fitness to rule as the embodiment of the wealth and intelligence (which
are generally the ruling factors world-wide), and would have at an early
date derived a just "power from the consent of the governed," did not
history record the unnecessary and inhuman means resorted to to extort
it, the obliquity of which can be erased only by according him the
rights of an American citizen. Mutual hostility, opposition on the one
hand to the assumption and exercise of these rights, and consequent
distrust by the freedman, often fostered by unscrupulous leaders, have
been alike detrimental to both classes, but especially so to the Negro,
for his constant need in the Southland is the cordial friendship and
helping hand of "his brother in white." He deserves it for his century
of unrequited labor in peace and in war for fidelity to the tender ties
committed to his care. Anti-revolutionist in his nature, he will
continue to merit it and possibly save the industrial life in the South
in the coming conflict of capital and labor.
That, as a class, they are in antagonism to the prevailing political
sentiment is the legitimate result of the manner of their emancipation
and a commendable gratitude and kinship for the party through which they
obtained their freedom. But Gibbon, in his "Decline and Fall of Rome,"
has said that "gratitude is expensive," and so the Negro has found it,
and is beginning to echo the sentiment and would gladly hail conditions
and opportunity where he could, after thirty-five years of blood and
fidelity, be less partisan and more fraternal politically, conscious his
united affiliation with his early alliance, and consequent ostracism of
the opposition has given him a "hard road to travel." Commendable as has
been his devotion, he finds commendation a limited currency and not
negotiable for the protection and benefits that should accompany the
paladium of citizenship. While his treatment by the Democratic party has
made a continuous political relation compulsory, it is unfortunate; for
the political affinity of no other class of American citizens is judged
by the accident of birth. It is detrimental to the voter whose
proclivity is thereby determined. Wherever the Negro vote, in the
estimation of any party, is an uncertain quantity, its value as a factor
will have increased, consolidated, and in numbers controlling, it has
been considered a menace and vigorously eliminated.
This view has to an extent an auxiliary in certain Republican circles,
where it is avowed that the party could get in the South a large
accession of hitherto Democratic voters, giving it a commanding
influence, but for its colored contingent, which is averred to be
repellant. There may be difference of opinion as to the merit of such
conclusions and the fitness of their rehearsal "to the marines;" but
none as to the measure of welcome of those that hold them. However,
given that they are correct. Self-respect and a desire to help the old
party can go hand in hand, and when possible in a manly way, room should
be made for such anticipated accession.
There is another phase of present conditions that deserves, and I have
no doubt has claimed, attention. It is the emphatic trend of the
national leaders of the party to conciliate the hitherto discordant
elements in the South in the interest of national harmony, an object
lesson of which was presented by the late President on his Southern
tour. But few years have elapsed since no man seeking a renomination on
the Republican ticket would have put on and worn a Confederate badge.
This President McKinley did, receiving the indiscriminate applause and
the concurrence of his own party. Such an act, which is not only
allowable, but commendable, would formerly have been political suicide.
This being a movement in the house of his political alliance, it is up
to the Negro to consider which is his best interest, should the olive
branch of political friendship be extended by those from whom he
receives his chief support. Under like conditions, his white brother
would have no hesitancy.
There is yet another phase which indicates the Negro in jeopardy on
industrial lines. A few years hence the South will have ceased to be
chiefly agricultural. Mills for cotton, iron, and other factories will
have dotted hilltop and valley, and with them will come the Northern
operative with his exclusive "unions" and trade prejudice, shutting the
doors of mills and foundries against him. To meet this scramble for
favor from the wealth and intelligence of the Southland--the ruling
factors--he should avail himself of every appliance for fostering
harmony and co-operation along all the lines of contact. In slavery and
in his subsequent journey in freedom he has suffered much. But what
nation or people have escaped that ordeal who have made mark in the
world's history? There is now prospective unfriendly legislation in
several Southern States; also the lowest of the whites, as they deem
occasion may require, go, often undisturbed, on shooting and lynching
expeditions.
The problem that continues to force itself for solution is, How the
innocent are to receive immunity from these outrages or a fair trial,
when accused of crime. These being under the purview of State
sovereignty, the Federal arm is not only powerless, but there exists no
Northern sentiment favoring drastic means for their correction. Hence it
is evident that relief can only come from those who fashion the
sentiment that crystallizes into law. But with the bitter is mingled the
sweet; much of his advancement along educational and material lines is
due to the liberality of the white people of the South, who, it has been
computed, have contributed one hundred millions of dollars since
emancipation by taxes and donations for his education, and there are
many evidences that the best thought of the South is in line with Negro
employment and his educational advancement in the belief that the more
general the intelligence the greater the State's progress, morally and
materially. This conviction was emphatically expressed by an
overwhelming negative vote in the Arkansas Legislature recently, where a
measure was introduced to abandon him to his own taxable resources for
education. The ratio of his moral and material product will be the
measure of his gratitude for this great boon. For, after all, many of
"our great dangers are not from without."
[Illustration: EDWARD E. COOPER.
Editor and Publisher of "Colored American," Washington, D. C.
Founder of "Colored World" and "Indianapolis Freeman" Conspicuous as a
Leader and Enterprising as a Journalist.]
General ----, a leading Democrat of this State, and an unmistakable
friend of the negro, referring to the above evidence of good feeling,
said he did not see why I, and other reputed leaders, in view of such
evidences of friendship, did not induce our people to be fraternal
politically. I replied that the effort had once been made, but that the
Democratic party, intrenched as it was in large majorities in the South,
"by ways that are dark and tricks that are vain," its leaders say they
"do not need, neither do they solicit, the colored vote; but if they
choose, they may so vote." He said that certainly had a ringing sound of
independence and was uninviting as an announcement--an independence,
however, that will not forever outlive the vagaries of sound, for it is
not unlikely that he will not only vote the ticket, but be earnestly
solicited to do so. "For it will happen, during the whirligig of time
and action, in my party as well as others, that there will be a change
of policies, new issues, local dissatisfaction, friction, contemplated
antagonism and the political arithmetic sounded. But I cannot but
believe that the clannishness of the Negro has been the boomerang that
has knocked him out of much sympathy, being impractical as a political
factor and out of harmony with the material policies of the Southern
people."
I replied I had thought the highest ideal of patriotism was adherence to
measures materially as well as politically that were for the benefit of
the whole people.
He said: "I know your party preach that they have a monopoly of wisdom;
but the fact is the wisest statesmen of the world are divided in opinion
as to the benefits claimed for the leading policies of your party. But
how do they benefit you, as a dependent class? Your immediate need is
employment and good educational facilities. You should be less
sentimental and more practical. You may honestly believe in a protective
tariff, having for its object the protection of the American
working-man, but does it help you when you know that the doors of mills,
foundries, and manufactories are shut against you? As to the currency,
you are at a disadvantage when you attempt to antagonize the financial
views of your employers.
"It reminds me of an incident," he continued, "in my native town in
Virginia, not long after reconstruction. There had been a drought and
short crop, succeeded by a pretty hard winter. My father, whose
politics, you may well judge, I being 'a chip of the old block,' without
soliciting money or favor, threw open his cellar, wherein was stowed
many bushels of sweet potatoes; invited all the destitute to come. It is
needless to say they came. In the spring Tobey, the Negro minister of
the Baptist Church--a man illiterate, but with much native sense--after
morning service, said: 'Brethren, there's gwine to be a 'lection here
next week, and I wants you all to vote in de light dat God has gin you
to see de light, but I spects to vote wid de taters.' Now, this may seem
ludicrous, but Tobey, in that act, was a fit representative of the white
man in politics--for every class of American citizens except the Negro
divide their vote and put it where to them personally it will do the
most good."
"Much," I replied, "that you have said is undoubtedly true. But can you
wonder at the Negro's cohesion? Is it not a fact that his is the only
class of citizens that your party deny equal participation in the
franchise, and unjustly discriminate against in the application of the
laws? Where better could a change of conduct which you would admire and
he so happily embrace, be inaugurated than within your own political
household; where could nobility of character be more grandly displayed
than by the abolition of these vicious hindrances to the uplifting of
the weak and lowly?"
"Be that as it may," he replied, "your race is not in a condition to
make friends by opposing the prevailing local policies of their
environments."
I have narrated this interview for the reason that it is a fitting type
of the views of friends of the Negro of the South who somehow fail to
see the difficulty in his fraternizing with them in the midst of so much
political persecution and bodily outrage. I referred in the above
interview to an effort of colored leaders to assimilate with Southern
politics.
CHAPTER XI.
In 1876 (twenty-five years ago) I was President of a National Convention
held at Nashville, Tenn, and of which H. V. Redfield, an able
correspondent of the "Cincinnati Commercial," made the following unduly
flattering mention: "Mifflin W. Gibbs, of Arkansas, was selected as
President. It may be interesting to know that Gibbs is strongly in favor
of Bristoe, now an aspirant for the Presidency. He will likely be a
delegate from Arkansas to the National Republican Convention at
Cincinnati. He is a lawyer, one of the foremost of his race in Arkansas.
He is rather slender and a genteel-looking man, with something in his
features that denotes superiority" ("Though poor in thanks," Redfield,
yet I thank thee.) "His speech upon taking the chair, was another event.
It was the third good speech of the day and calculated to leave the
believers of internal inferiority in something of a muddle.
"He made a manly plea for equal rights for his race. All they wanted was
an equal chance in the battle of life. They did not desire to hinder any
man for exercising his political rights as he saw fit, and all they
claimed was liberty of thought and action for themselves. He was sorry
there was occasion for a convention of black men to consider black men's
status. The fact alone was evidence that the race had not been accorded
right and justice. Of the treatment of his race in Arkansas he had
little to complain of, but spoke bitterly of the murders at Vicksburg,
Miss. He gave the Republican party, as administered at Washington,
several blows under the chin. He complained of bad treatment of colored
men by that party, notwithstanding all its professions. He made the bold
declaration that all the whites of the South need do to get their votes
was to promise equal and exact justice and stand to it. All they wanted
was their rights as American citizens and would go into the party that
would secure them. He said the question primarily demanding the
attention of the convention were educational and political, and he hoped
the proceedings would be so orderly as to convince the whites present
that we were capable of self-control. His speech had a highly
independent flavor and the particular independent passages were
applauded by whites and blacks alike."
While the call for the convention was not distinctly political, that
feature of the proceedings was the most pronounced. For at that early
day, through an experience the most bitter, the lesson had been learned
that politics was not the panacea, but that our affiliation with the
Republican party was the main offence. Hence a disposition to
fraternize with Southern politicians for race protection and opportunity
had many adherents, and voiced by Governor Pinchback and other prominent
leaders in the South, who, while preferring to maintain their fealty to
the Republican party, were willing to sacrifice that allegiance if they
could secure protection and improve conditions for the race. Had the
leaders of Southern opinion met these overtures, even part of the way,
much of the friction and turbulence of subsequent years would have been
avoided. But that there will be a breaking up of the political
solidarity of the South, not on sentimental but on material lines, at no
distant day all signs promise, and be its status what it may, the Negro
will benefit by commingling with the respective parties in political
fellowship. Laying down the "old grudge" at the door of opportunity and
entering, should the premises be habitable, he could "report progress
and ask leave to sit again."
It has been alleged to the discredit of the Negro that he too soon
forgets an injury. Nevertheless as a virtue it should redound to his
credit. He is swift to forgive and, if necessary, apologize for the
shortcomings of his adversary. But human nature seldom appreciates
forgiveness, preceded as it is by censure, the subject of which usually
repels, and another melancholy phase is often apparent, for the pricks
of conscience for those we have wronged, we seek solace by hating. There
are in both parties a fraction of saints, who, notwithstanding his
immense contribution by unrequited labor to the wealth of the nation
whilst a slave; his fidelity and bravery in every war of the Republic,
have for him neither care nor regard; denounce him as an incapable and a
bad legacy. He should, nevertheless, be patient, diligent, and hopeful,
with appreciation for his friends and for his enemies a consciousness
expressed in the Irishman's toast to the Englishman--
"Here's to you, as good as you are;
And here's to me, as bad as I am;
But as good as you are,
And as bad as I am,
I'm as good as you are,
As bad as I am."
Very ill considered is the opinion held and advocated by some, that he
should defer or eschew politics--who say: "Let the Negro be deprived of
this right of citizenship until he learns how to exercise it with wisdom
and discretion." As well say to the boy, Do not go into the water until
you learn to swim! The highest type of civilization is the evolution of
mistakes. While education, business, and skilled labor should have the
right of way and be primarily cherished, his right to vote and
persistent desire to exercise it should never be abandoned, for he will
yet enjoy its fullest fruition all over this, our God-blessed land.
Among the delegates I met at the South Carolina convention in 1871 were
the Hon. William H. Grey, H. B. Robinson, and J. H. Johnson, of
Arkansas, prominent planters and leaders in that State. I was much
impressed with the eloquence of Grey, and the practical ideas advanced
by Robinson, the one charmed, the other convinced. Learning that I
sought a desirable place to locate in the South, they were enthusiastic
in describing the advantages held out by the State of Arkansas. The
comparative infancy of its development, its golden prospects, and
fraternal amenities. Crossing the Arkansas River in a ferry-boat, in
May, 1871, I arrived in Little Rock a stranger to every inhabitant. It
was on a Sunday morning. The air refreshing, the sun not yet fervent, a
cloudless sky canopied the city; the carol of the canary and mocking
bird from treetop and cage was all that entered a peaceful, restful
quiet that bespoke a well-governed city. The chiming church bells that
soon after summoned worshipers seemed to bid me welcome. The high and
humble, in their best attire, wended their way to the respective places
of worship.
Little Rock at that date, not unlike most Western cities in their
infancy, and bid for immigration, was extensively laid out, but thinly
populated, having less than 12,000 inhabitants. From river front to
Twelfth Street, on the south, and to Chester on the west, it was but
sparsely settled. The streets were unimproved, but the gradual rise from
river front gave a natural drainage. Residences and gardens of the more
prominent, on the outskirts, gave token of culture and refinement. The
nom de plume "City of Roses" seemed fittingly bestowed, for with trellis
or encircling with shady bower, the stately doorway of the wealthy, or
the cabin of the lowly could be seen the rose, the honeysuckle, or other
verdure of perfume and beauty, imparting a grateful fragrance, while
"every prospect pleases." My first impressions have not been lessened by
lapse of time; generous nature has enabled human appliance to make
Little Rock an ideal city.
As knowledge of the local status of a State, as well as common law, must
precede admission to the bar, I applied and was kindly permitted to
enter the law office of Benjamin & Barnes, at that time the only
building on the square now occupied by the post office and the Allis
Block. In this for preparatory reading I was very fortunate. I not only
found an extensive law library, but the kindness and special interest
shown by Sidney M. Barnes was of incalculable benefit. Mr. Barnes was an
able jurist, one of nature's noblemen, genial, generous, and patriotic.
A wealthy slaveholder in Kentucky, when the note of civil war was
sounded, called together his slaves, gave them their freedom, and at an
early date had them enrolled in the Federal army, and went forth himself
to fight for the Union. James K. Barnes, his son, now a prominent
citizen of Fort Smith, and the able United States Attorney for the
Western district of Arkansas, and whose fellowship and kindness has
extended through all my political career in Arkansas, is "a worthy son
of a noble sire," having courage of conviction and eloquence in their
enunciation. Among the young men then practicing law was Lloyd G.
Wheeler, a graduate from a law school in Chicago, popular and an able
lawyer, with considerable practice. In 1872 we joined, under the firm
name of Wheeler & Gibbs, opening an office in the Old Bank Building,
corner Center and Markam Streets.
[Illustration: HON. JUDSON W. LYONS.
Present Register of the Treasury. Born in Georgia--A Graduate of Howard
University--Appointed by President McKinley to the Above Position.]
It is not without considerable trepidation that an infant limb of the
law shies his castor into the ring, puts up his shingle announcing that
A, B, or C is an "Attorney and Counsellor at Law." His cerebral column
stiffens as, from day to day, he meets members of the bar, who
congratulate him upon his advent, and feels his importance as he waits
from day to day for the visit of his first client, but collapses when he
arrives and with ghostly dread salutes him and prepares to listen with a
disturbed sense of an awful responsibility he is about to undertake.
For, side by side with his client's statements there seem to appear in
stately majesty all the adjuncts of the law: First, the inquisitive
glance of the judge, like a judicial searchlight, scans him as he rises
to defend Mr. Only Borrow, charged with larceny. Will he be able to
think on his feet at the bar as he did in his chair in his office? Will
he succeed or fail in stating his case, with eye and ear of every
veteran of the bar intent on his first utterance? How about the jury,
that unknown quantity of capricious predilections? Will they give him
attention, or will their eyes find a more congenial resting place?
Unbidden, the panorama insists on prominence. He attempts the most
nonchalant air, tells Mr. B. to proceed and state his case. This was not
the first time that he had been requested to perform this incipient step
of the law's demand, and he does it with such astuteness and flippancy,
and how he had been wronged and persecuted by the plaintiff, that tears,
unbidden, are ready to glisten in your eyes. Injured innocence and your
sworn duty to your profession inspire courage and induce you to take his
case. Later on the tyro will have learned that it was highly probable
that Mr. B. would not have called on him but for the fact that he was
not only out of cash, but out of credit with able and experienced
practitioners.
At the time of my examination for entry to the bar by the committee, of
which William G. Whipple was one, I was instructed that the most
important acquisition for a member of the bar was ability to secure his
fee. Having noted all the points of defence for his honesty, the last,
but not the least matter to be considered was the fee, resulting in an
exchange of promises and his departure. When the case was called, for
reasons not divulged, the plaintiff failed to appear. Mr. Borrow was
acquitted; I won my case and am still wooing my fee. The study of the
law is not solely of advantage to those who intend adopting it as a
profession, for its fundamental principles are interwoven with the best
needs of mankind in all his undertakings, making it of value to the
preacher or laymen, the merchant or politician. For the young man
intending the pursuit of the latter it is quite indispensable. The
condition in the South for a quarter of a century giving opportunity for
colored men to engage in the professions has not been neglected. In each
of the States there are physicians and lawyers practicing with more or
less success. With equality of standing as to culture, ability and
devotion, the doctor has had the advantage for a growing and lucrative
practice. This can be accounted for partly on account of the private
administrations of the one and the public career of the other. The
physicians has seldom contact with his professional brother in white and
escapes much of the difficulty that lies in wait for the colored
disciple of Blackstone.
During my practice I found the judges eminently fair in summing up the
evidence produced, noting the points and impartially charging the
jurors, who were also fair when plaintiff and defendant were of the same
race, but who, alas, too often, when the case had been argued by, or the
issue was between the representatives of the two races, bowed to the
prevailing bias in their verdict. Bishop, in his introduction to his
"Criminal Law," has fittingly said: "The responsibilities which devolve
on judicial tribunals are admitted. But a judge sitting in court is
under no higher obligation to cast aside personal motives and his likes
and dislikes of the parties litigant, and to spurn the bribe if
proffered than any other official person acting under a jurisdiction to
enforce laws not judicial. Happy will be the day when public virtue
exists otherwise than in name." It often happens with cases commanding
liberal fees and where the litigant has high regard for the legal
learning and ability of the colored lawyer, yet conscious of this
hindrance to a successful issue of his case, very naturally goes
elsewhere for legal assistance. Hence, as an advocate not having
inducement for continued research and opportunity for application of the
more intricate elements of the law, confined to petty cases with
corresponding fee, he is handicapped in his effort to attain eminence as
a jurist. It has been said that great men create circumstances. But
circumstances unavoidably produce great men. Henry Drummond is quoted
as saying: "No matter what its possibilities may be, no matter what
seeds of thought or virtue lie latent in its breast, until the
appropriate environment presents itself, the correspondence is denied,
the development discouraged, the most splendid possibilities of life
remain unrealized, and thought and virtue, genius and art, are dead."
It should be the solemn and persistent duty of the race to contend for
every right the Magna Charta of the Republic has granted them, but it
might assuage the pang of deprivation and stimulate opportunity did he
fully know the stages of savagery, slavery, and oceans of blood through
which the Anglo-Saxon passed to attain the exalted position he now
occupies. Much of the jurisprudence we now have responding to and
crystallizing the best needs of humanity were garnered in this sanguine
and checkered career. It is said that the law is a jealous mistress,
demanding intense and entire devotion and unceasing wooing to succeed in
winning her favor, or profiting by her decrees. Yet, for student or
layman, the study is instructive and ennobling. It is an epitome of ages
of human conduct, the products, the yearnings, and strivings of the
human heart, as higher conceptions of man's relation to his fellow found
echo or inscription in either the common or written law. Locality,
nationality, race, sex, religion, or social manner may differ, but the
accord of desire for civil liberty--the "torch lit up in the soul by the
omnipotent hand of Deity itself"--is ever the same. Constitutional law
"was not attained by sudden flight," but it is the product of reform,
with success and restraint alternating through generations. It is the
ripeness of a thousand years of ever-recurring tillage, blushing its
scarlet rays of blood and conquest ante-dating historic "Runny Meade."
It is well to occasionally have such reminiscent thought; it makes us
less pessimistic and
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