History of the Negro Race in America Volume II Part 59

If these recommendations were important then, with a population of but a few millions, how much more important now, with a population of forty millions, and increasing in a rapid ratio.

"I would therefore call upon Congress to take all the means within their const.i.tutional powers to promote and encourage popular education throughout the country; and upon the people everywhere to see to it that all who possess and exercise political rights shall have the opportunity to acquire the knowledge which will make their share in the government a blessing and not a danger. By such means only can the benefits contemplated by this amendment to the Const.i.tution be secured.

"U. S. GRANT.

"EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 30, 1870."

CERTIFICATE OF MR. SECRETARY FISH RESPECTING THE RATIFICATION OF THE XVTH AMENDMENT TO THE CONSt.i.tUTION, MARCH 30, 1870.

"HAMILTON FISH, SECRETARY OF STATE OF THE UNITED STATES.

"_To all to whom these presents may come, greeting_:

"Know ye that the Congress of the United States, on or about the 27th day of February, in the year 1869, pa.s.sed a resolution in the words and figures following, to wit:

"A RESOLUTION proposing an amendment to the Const.i.tution of the United States.

"_Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress a.s.sembled, (two-thirds of both houses concurring.)_ That the following article be proposed to the legislatures of the several States as an amendment to the Const.i.tution of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said legislatures, shall be valid as part of the Const.i.tution, namely:

"ARTICLE XV.

"SECTION 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

"SEC. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

"And, further, that it appears, from official doc.u.ments on file in this department, that the amendment to the Const.i.tution of the United States, proposed as aforesaid, has been ratified by the legislatures of the States of North Carolina, West Virginia, Ma.s.sachusetts, Wisconsin, Maine, Louisiana, Michigan, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, New York, New Hamps.h.i.+re, Nevada, Vermont, Virginia, Alabama, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Nebraska, and Texas; in all, twenty-nine States.

"And, further, that the States whose legislatures have so ratified the said proposed amendment const.i.tute three-fourths of the whole number of States in the United States.

"And, further, that it appears, from an official doc.u.ment on file in this department, that the legislature of the State of New York has since pa.s.sed resolutions claiming to withdraw the said ratification of the said amendment which had been made by the legislature of that State, and of which official notice had been filed in this department.

"And, further, that it appears, from an official doc.u.ment on file in this department, that the legislature of Georgia has by resolution ratified the said proposed amendment.

"Now, therefore, be it known that I, Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State of the United States, by virtue and in pursuance of the 2d section of the act of Congress, approved the 20th day of April, 1818, ent.i.tled "An act to provide for the publication of the laws of the United States, and for other purposes," do hereby certify, that the amendment aforesaid has become valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of the Const.i.tution of the United States.

"In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the Department of State to be affixed.

"Done at the city of Was.h.i.+ngton, this 30th day of March, in the year of our Lord, 1870, and of the independence of the United States, the ninety-fourth.

[SEAL.]

"HAMILTON FISH."

The Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation itself did not call forth such genuine and wide-spread rejoicing as the message of President Grant. The event was celebrated by the Colored people in all the larger cities North and South. Processions, orations, music and dancing proclaimed the unbounded joy of the new citizen. In Philadelphia Frederick Dougla.s.s, Bishop Jabez P. Campbell, I. C. Wears, and others delivered eloquent addresses to enthusiastic audiences. Mr. Dougla.s.s deeply wounded the religious feelings of his race by declaring; "I shall not dwell in any hackneyed cant by thanking G.o.d for this deliverance which has been wrought out through our common humanity." A hundred pulpits, a hundred trenchant pens sprang at the declaration with fiery indignation; and it was some years before the bold orator was able to make himself tolerable to his people. There was little of the spirit of tolerance among the Colored people at the time, and upon such an occasion the remark was regarded as imprudent, to say the least.

A new era was opened up before the Colored people. They were now for the first time in possession of their full political rights. On the 25th of February, 1870, Hiram R. Revels took his seat as United States Senator from Mississippi. On the 9th of January, 1861, Mississippi pa.s.sed her ordinance of secession, and Jefferson Davis resigned his seat as United States Senator. Within a brief decade a civil war had raged for four and a half years; and after the seceding Mississippi had pa.s.sed through the refining fires of battle and had been purged of slavery, she sent to succeed the arch traitor a _Negro_,[123] a representative of the race that Mr. Davis intended to be the corner-stone of his new government!![124] It was G.o.d's work, and marvellous in the eyes of the world. But this was not all. Just one year from the day and hour Senator Revels took his seat in the United States Senate, on the 24th of February, 1871, Jefferson F. Long, a _Negro_, was sworn in as a member of the House of Representatives from Georgia, the State of Alexander H. Stephens, the Vice-President of the Confederate States!! And then, as if to add glory to glory, the American Government despatched E. D. Ba.s.sett, a Colored man from Pennsylvania, as Minister Resident and Consul-General to Hayti! And with almost the same stroke of his pen, President Grant sent J. Milton Turner, a Colored man from Missouri, as Resident Minister and Consul-General to Liberia! Mr. Ba.s.sett came from Philadelphia where the Declaration of Independence was written and proclaimed, and where the n.o.ble Dr. Franklin had stood against the slavery compromises of the Const.i.tution! Philadelphia, then, the birthplace of American Independence, had the honor of furnis.h.i.+ng the first Negro who was to ill.u.s.trate the lofty sentiment of the equality of _all_ men before the law. And the republic that Mr. Ba.s.sett went to had won diplomatic relations with all the civilized powers of the earth through the matchless valor and splendid statesmans.h.i.+p of Toussaint L'Ouverture.

This was a black republic that had a history and a name among the peoples of the world.

Mr. Turner went from Missouri, the first State to violate the ordinance of 1787, and to establish slavery "northwest of the Ohio"

River. He went to a republic on the West Coast of Africa that had been built by the industry, intelligence, and piety of Negroes who had flown from the accursed influences of American slavery. The slave-s.h.i.+ps had disappeared from the coast, and commercial fleets, from all lands came to trade with the citizens of a free republic whose ministers were welcomed in every court of Europe, and whose official acts were clothed with the authority and majesty of "_the Republic of Liberia_!"

In this same period Frederick Dougla.s.s was made a Presidential Elector for the State of New York; and thus helped cast the vote of that great commonwealth for U. S. Grant as President, in 1872. In the chief city of this State the first Federal Congress met, and on the first day of its first session spent the entire time in discussing the slavery question. Through the streets of this same city Mr. Dougla.s.s had to skulk and hide from slave-catchers on his way from the h.e.l.l of slavery, to the land of freedom. In this city, a few years later, he was hounded by a pro-slavery mob,--but at last he represented the popular will of its n.o.blest citizens when they had chosen him to act for them in the Electoral College.

Born a slave, some time during the present century, on the eastern sh.o.r.e, Maryland, in the county of Talbot, and in the district of Tuckahoe, Frederick Dougla.s.s was destined by nature and G.o.d to be a giant in the great moral agitation for the extinction of slavery and the redemption of his race. He came of two extremes--representative Negro and representative Saxon. Tall, large-boned, colossal frame, compact head, broad, expressive face adorned with small brown, mischievous eyes, nose slightly Grecian, chin square set, and thin lips, Frederick Dougla.s.s would attract attention upon the streets of any city in Europe or America. His life as a slave was studded with painful experiences. Early separation from his mother, neglect, and then cruel treatment gave to the holy cause of freedom one of its ablest champions, and to slavery one of its most invincible opponents.

Transferred from Talbot County to Baltimore, Maryland, where he spent seven years, Mr. Dougla.s.s began to extend the horizon of his intellectual vision, and to come face to face with the hideous monster of slavery in the moments of reflection upon his condition in contrast with that of a fairer race about him. Inadvertently his mistress began to teach him characters of letters; but she was stopped by the advice of her husband, because it was thought inimical to the interest of the master to teach his slave. But having lighted the taper of knowledge in the mind of the slave boy, it was forever beyond human power to put it out. The incidents and surroundings of young Dougla.s.s peopled his brain with ideas, gave wings to his thoughts and order to his reasoning. The word of reproof, the angry look, and the precautions to prevent him from acquiring knowledge rankled in his young heart and covered his moral sky with thick clouds of despair. He reasoned himself right out of slavery, and ran away and went North.

David Ruggles, a Colored gentleman of intelligence, took charge of Mr.

Dougla.s.s in New York, and sent him to New Bedford, Ma.s.sachusetts.

Having married in New York a free Colored woman from Baltimore named "Anna," he was ready now to enter upon the duties of the new life as a freeman. He found in one Nathan Johnson, an intelligent and industrious Colored man of New Bedford, a warm friend, who advanced him a sum of money to redeem baggage held for fare, and gave him the name which he has since rendered ill.u.s.trious.

The intellectual growth of Mr. Dougla.s.s from this on was almost phenomenal. He devoured knowledge with avidity, and retained and utilized all he got. He used information as good business men use money. He made every idea bear interest; and now setting the music of his soul to the words he acquired, he soon earned a reputation as a gifted conversationalist and an impressive orator.

In the summer of 1841 an anti-slavery convention was held at Nantucket, Ma.s.sachusetts, under the direction of William Lloyd Garrison. Mr. Dougla.s.s had attended several meetings in New Bedford, where he had listened to a defence of his race and a denunciation of its oppressors. And when he heard of the forthcoming convention at Nantucket he resolved to take a little respite from the hard work he was performing in a bra.s.s foundry, and attend. Previous to this he had felt the warm heart of Mr. Garrison beating for the slave through the columns of the "Liberator"; had received a copy each week for a long time, had mastered its matchless arguments against slavery, and was, therefore, possessed with an idea of the anti-slavery cause. At Nantucket he was sought out of the vast audience and requested by William C. Coffin, of New Bedford, where he had heard the fervid eloquence of the young man as an exhorter in the Colored Methodist Church, to make a speech. The hesitancy and diffidence of Mr. Dougla.s.s were overcome by the importunate invitation to speak. He spoke: and from that hour a new sphere opened to him; from that hour he began to exert an influence against slavery which for a generation was second only to that of Mr. Garrison. He was engaged as an agent of the Anti-Slavery Society led by Mr. Garrison. He was taken in charge by George Foster, and in his company made a lecturing tour of the eastern tier of counties in the old Bay State. The meetings were announced a few days ahead of the lecturer. He was advertised as a "fugitive slave," as "a chattel," as "a thing" that could talk and give an interesting account of the cruelties of slavery. As a narrator he had few equals among the most polished white gentlemen of all New England.

His white friends were charmed by the lucidity and succinctness of his account of his life as a slave, and always insisted upon his narrative. But he was more than a narrator, more than a story-teller; he was an orator, and in dealing with the problem of slavery proved himself to be a thinker. The old story of his bondage became stale to him. His friends' advice to keep on telling the same story could no longer be complied with; and das.h.i.+ng out of the beaten path of narration he began a career as an orator that has had no parallel on this continent. He found no adequate satisfaction in relating the experiences of a slave; his soul burned with a holy indignation against the inst.i.tution of slavery. Having increased his vocabulary of words and his information concerning the purposes and plans of the Anti-Slavery Society, he was prepared to make an a.s.sault upon slavery.

Instead of being the pupil of the anti-slavery friends who had furnished him a great opportunity, his close reasoning, blighting irony, merciless invective, and matchless eloquence made him the peer of any anti-slavery orator of his times. His appearance on the anti-slavery platform was sudden. He appeared as a new star of magnificent magnitude and surpa.s.sing beauty. All eyes were turned toward the "fugitive slave orator." His eloquence so astounded the people that few would believe he had ever felt the cruel touch of the lash. Moreover, he had withheld from the public, the State and place of his nativity and the circ.u.mstances of his escape. He had done this purposely for prudential reasons. In those days there was no protection that protected a fugitive slave against the slave-catcher a.s.sisted by the United States courts. To reveal his master's name and recount the exciting circ.u.mstances under which he had made his escape from bondage, Mr. Dougla.s.s felt was but to invite the slave-hounds to Ma.s.sachusetts and endanger his liberty. But there were many good friends hard by who were ready to pay the market value of Mr. Dougla.s.s if a price were placed upon his flesh and blood. They urged him, therefore, to write out an account of his life as a slave,--to be specific; and to boldly mention names of places and persons. In 1845 a pamphlet written by Mr. Dougla.s.s, embodying the experiences of a "fugitive slave," was published by the Anti-Slavery Society. It breathed a fiery zeal into the apathy of the North, and drew the fire of the Southern press and people. For safety his friends sent him abroad. During the voyage, in accepting an invitation to deliver a lecture on slavery, he gave offence to some pro-slavery men who desired very much to feed his body to the inhabitants of the deep. But a resolute captain and a few friends were able to reduce the wrath of the Southerners to a minimum. The occurrence on s.h.i.+pboard duly found its way into the public journals of London; and the Southern gentlemen in an attempt to justify their conduct in a card drew upon themselves the wrath of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, and gave Mr.

Dougla.s.s an advertis.e.m.e.nt such as he could never have secured otherwise.

Mr. Dougla.s.s spent nearly two years in Europe lecturing and writing in the cause of anti-slavery. He made a profound impression and helped the anti-slavery cause amazingly.

During his absence he wrote an occasional letter to the editor of the "Liberator," and the first is, for composition, vigorous English, symbols of thought, similes, and irony, superior to any letter he ever wrote before or since. It bore date of January 1, 1846.

"MY DEAR FRIEND GARRISON: Up to this time I have given no direct expression of the views, feelings, and opinions which I have formed, respecting the character and condition of the people of this land. I have refrained thus, purposely. I wish to speak advisedly, and in order to do this, I have waited till, I trust, experience has brought my opinions to an intelligent maturity. I have been thus careful, not because I think what I say will have much effect in shaping the opinions of the world, but because whatever of influence I may possess, whether little or much, I wish it to go in the right direction, and according to truth. I hardly need say that, in speaking of Ireland, I shall be influenced by no prejudices in favor of America. I think my circ.u.mstances all forbid that. I have no end to serve, no creed to uphold, no government to defend; and as to nation, I belong to none. I have no protection at home, or resting-place abroad. The land of my birth welcomes me to her sh.o.r.es only as a slave, and spurns with contempt the idea of treating me differently; so that I am an outcast from the society of my childhood, and an outlaw in the land of my birth. 'I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.' That men should be patriotic, is to me perfectly natural; and as a philosophical fact, I am able to give it an _intellectual_ recognition. But no further can I go. If ever I had any patriotism, or any capacity for the feeling, it was whipped out of me long since, by the lash of the American soul-drivers.

"In thinking of America, I sometimes find myself admiring her bright blue sky, her grand old woods, her fertile fields, her beautiful rivers, her mighty lakes, and star-crowned mountains.

But my rapture is soon checked, my joy is soon turned to mourning. When I remember that all is cursed with the infernal spirit of slave-holding, robbery, and wrong; when I remember that with the waters of her n.o.blest rivers, the tears of my brethren are borne to the ocean, disregarded and forgotten, and that her most fertile fields drink daily of the warm blood of my outraged sisters, I am filled with unutterable loathing, and led to reproach myself that any thing could fall from my lips in praise of such a land. America will not allow her children to love her.

She seems bent on compelling those who would be her warmest friends, to be her worst enemies. May G.o.d give her repentance, before it is too late, is the ardent prayer of my heart. I will continue to pray, labor, and wait, believing that she cannot always be insensible to the dictates of justice, or deaf to the voice of humanity.

"My opportunities for learning the character and condition of the people of this land have been very great. I have travelled almost from the Hill of Howth to the Giant's Causeway, and from the Giant's Causeway to Cape Clear. During these travels, I have met with much in the character and condition of the people to approve, and much to condemn; much that has thrilled me with pleasure, and very much that has filled me with pain. I will not, in this letter, attempt to give any description of those scenes which have given me pain. This I will do hereafter. I have enough, and more than your subscribers will be disposed to read at one time, of the bright side of the picture. I can truly say, I have spent some of the happiest moments of my life since landing in this country. I seem to have undergone a transformation. I live a new life. The warm and generous cooperation extended to me by the friends of my despised race; the prompt and liberal manner with which the press has rendered me its aid; the glorious enthusiasm with which thousands have flocked to hear the cruel wrongs of my down-trodden and long-enslaved fellow-countrymen portrayed; the deep sympathy for the slave, and the strong abhorrence of the slave-holder, everywhere evinced; the cordiality with which members and ministers of various religious bodies, and of various shades of religious opinion, have embraced me, and lent me their aid; the kind hospitality constantly proffered me by persons of the highest rank in society; the spirit of freedom that seems to animate all with whom I come in contact, and the entire absence of every thing that looked like prejudice against me, on account of the color of my skin--contrasted so strongly with my long and bitter experience in the United States, that I look with wonder and amazement on the transition. In the southern part of the United States, I was a slave, thought of and spoken of as property; in the language of the LAW, '_held, taken, reputed, and adjudged to be a chattel in the hands of my owners and possessors, and their executors, administrators, and a.s.signs, to all intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever_.' (Brev.

Digest, 224.) In the northern states, a fugitive slave, liable to be hunted at any moment like a felon, and to be hurled into the terrible jaws of slavery-doomed by an inveterate prejudice against color to insult and outrage on every hand, (Ma.s.sachussetts out of the question)--denied the privileges and courtesies common to others in the use of the most humble means of conveyance--shut out from the cabins of steamboats--refused admission to respectable hotels--caricatured, scorned, scoffed, mocked, and maltreated with impunity by any one, (no matter how black his heart,) so he has a white skin. But now behold the change! Eleven days and a half gone, and I have crossed three thousand miles of the perilous deep. Instead of a democratic government, I am under a monarchical government. Instead of the bright, blue sky of America, I am covered with the soft, grey fog of the Emerald Isle. I breathe, and lo! the chattel becomes a man. I gaze around in vain for one who will question my equal humanity, claim me as his slave, or offer me an insult. I employ a cab--I am seated beside white people--I reach the hotel--I enter the same door--I am shown into the same parlor--I dine at the same table--and no one is offended.

No delicate nose grows deformed in my presence. I find no difficulty here in obtaining admission into any place of wors.h.i.+p, instruction, or amus.e.m.e.nt, on equal terms with people as white as any I ever saw in the United States. I meet nothing to remind me of my complexion. I find myself regarded and treated at every turn with the kindness and deference paid to white people. When I go to church, I am met by no upturned nose and scornful lip to tell me, '_We don't allow n.i.g.g.e.rs in here!_'

"I remember, about two years ago, there was in Boston, near the south-west corner of Boston Common, a menagerie. I had long desired to see such a collection as I understood was being exhibited there. Never having had an opportunity while a slave, I resolved to seize this, my first, since my escape. I went, and as I approached the entrance to gain admission, I was met and told by the door-keeper, in a harsh and contemptuous tone, '_We don't allow n.i.g.g.e.rs in here!_' I also remember attending a revival meeting in the Rev. Henry Jackson's meeting-house, at New Bedford, and going up the broad aisle to find a seat, I was met by a good deacon, who told me, in a pious tone, '_We don't allow n.i.g.g.e.rs in here!_' Soon after my arrival in New Bedford, from the South, I had a strong desire to attend the Lyceum, but was told, '_They don't allow n.i.g.g.e.rs in here!_' While pa.s.sing from New York to Boston, on the steamer 'Ma.s.sachusetts,' on the night of the 9th of December, 1843, when chilled almost through with the cold, I went into the cabin to get a little warm. I was soon touched upon the shoulder, and told, '_We don't allow n.i.g.g.e.rs in here!_'

On arriving in Boston, from an anti-slavery tour, hungry and tired, I went into an eating-house, near my friend, Mr.

Campbell's, to get some refreshments. I was met by a lad in a white ap.r.o.n, '_We don't allow n.i.g.g.e.rs in here!_' A week or two before leaving the United States, I had a meeting appointed at Weymouth, the home of that glorious band of true abolitionists, the Weston family, and others. On attempting to take a seat in the omnibus to that place, I was told by the driver (and I never shall forget his fiendish hate), '_I don't allow n.i.g.g.e.rs in here!_' Thank heaven for the respite I now enjoy! I had been in Dublin but a few days, when a gentleman of great respectability kindly offered to conduct me through all the public buildings of that beautiful city; and a little afterward, I found myself dining with the lord mayor of Dublin. What a pity there was not some American democratic Christian at the door of his splendid mansion, to bark out at my approach, '_They don't allow n.i.g.g.e.rs in here!_' The truth is, the people here know nothing of the republican negro hate prevalent in our glorious land. They measure and esteem men according to their moral and intellectual worth, and not according to the color of their skin. Whatever may be said of the aristocracies here, there is none based on the color of a man's skin.

This species of aristocracy belongs preeminently to 'the land of the free, and the home of the brave.' I have never found it abroad, in any but Americans. It sticks to them wherever they go.

They find it almost as hard to get rid of, as to get rid of their skins.

"The second day after my arrival at Liverpool, in company with my friend, Buffum, and several other friends, I went to Eaton Hall, the residence of the Marquis of Westminster, one of the most splendid buildings in England. On approaching the door, I found several of our American pa.s.sengers, who came out with us in the 'Cambria,' waiting for admission, as but one party was allowed in the house at a time. We all had to wait till the company within came out. And of all the faces, expressive of chagrin, those of the Americans were preeminent. They looked as sour as vinegar, and as bitter as gall, when they found I was to be admitted on equal terms with themselves. When the door was opened, I walked in, on an equal footing with my white fellow-citizens, and from all I could see, I had as much attention paid me by the servants that showed us through the house, as any with a paler skin. As I walked through the building, the statuary did not fall down, the pictures did not leap from their places, the doors did not refuse to open, and the servants did not say, '_We don't allow n.i.g.g.e.rs in here_.'

"A happy new year to you, and all the friends of freedom."

During the time of his visit in Europe a few friends, under the inspiration of one Mrs. Henry Richardson, raised money, purchased Mr.

Dougla.s.s, and placed his freedom papers in his hands. The doc.u.ments are of quaint historic value.

"The following is a copy of these curious papers, both of my transfer from Thomas to Hugh Auld, and from Hugh to myself: