THE BLACK AND TAN CONVENTION: THE "MIDNIGHT CONSTITUTION"
The Black and Tan Convention met December 3, 1867, in our venerable and
historic Capitol to frame a new constitution for the Old Dominion. In this
body were members from New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maine, Vermont,
Connecticut, Maryland, District of Columbia, Ireland, Scotland, Nova
Scotia, Canada, England; scalawags, or turn-coats, by Southerners most
hated of all; twenty-four negroes; and in the total of 105, thirty-five
white Virginians, from counties of excess white population, who might be
considered representative of the State's culture and intelligence. It was
officered by foreigners and negroes; John C. Underwood, of New York, being
President.
Capitol Square was garlanded with tables and stands; and the season was
one of joy to black and yellow vendors of ginger-cakes, goobers, lemonade,
and cheap whiskey. Early ornaments of the Capitol steps were ebony
law-makers sporting tall silk hats, gold-headed canes, broadcloth suits,
the coat always Prince Albert. Throughout the South this was the uniform
of sable dignitaries as soon as emoluments permitted. The funny sayings
and doings of negroes, sitting for the first time in legislative halls,
were rehearsed in conversation and reported in papers; visitors went to
the Capitol as to a monkey or minstrel show. Most of these darkeys, fresh
from tobacco lots and corn and cotton fields, were as innocent as babes of
any knowledge of reading and writing.
They were equally guileless in other directions. Before the body was
organised, an enthusiastic delegate bounced up to say something, but the
Chair nipped him untimely in the bud: "No motion is in order until roll is
called. Gentlemen will please remember parliamentary usage." The member
sank limp into his seat, asking in awed whisper of his neighbour: "Whut in
de worl' is dat?" Perplexity was great when a member rose to "make an
inquiry." "Whut's dat?" "Whut dat he gwi make?" was whispered round, the
question being settled summarily: "Well, it don' make no diffunce. We ain'
gwi let him do it nohow case he ain' no Radicule." White constituents soon
tried to muzzle black orators. Word was passed that white "Radicules"
would talk and black members keep silent and vote as they were bid. "Shew!
She-ew!" "Set down!" "Shut the door!" were household words, the last
ejaculation coming into request when scraps seemed imminent and members
wanted the sergeant-at-arms to take each other, yet preferred that the
public should not be witness to these little family jars.
Black, white, and yellow pages flew around, waiting on members; the
blacker the dignitary, the whiter the page he summoned to bring pens, ink,
paper, apples, ginger-cakes, goober-peas. And newspapers. No sooner did
darkeys observe that whites sent out and got newspapers than they did
likewise; and sat there reading them upside down.
The gallery of coloured men and women come to see the show were almost as
diverting as the law-makers. Great were the flutterings over the seating
of John Morrissey, the "Wild Irishman," mistaken for his namesake, the New
York pugilist. "Dat ain't de man dat fit Tom Higher?" "I tell you it am!"
"Sho got muscle!" "He come tuh fit dem Preservatives over dar." According
to the happy darkey knack of saying the wrong thing in the right place, a
significant version of "Conservative" was thus applied to the little
handful of representative white Virginians. Great, too, were the
flutterings when Governor "Plowpint" (so darkeys pronounced Pierpont) paid
his visit of ceremony; and when General Schofield and aide marched in in
war-paint and feathers: the Chair waved the gavel and the convention rose
to its feet to receive the distinguished guests. The war lord was to pay
another and less welcome visit. The piety of neither gallery nor
convention could be questioned if the fervor and frequency of "Amens!"
interrupting the petitions of the Chaplain (from Illinois) were an
indication; Dr. Bayne, of Norfolk, so raised his voice above the rest that
his colleagues became concerned lest that seaport were claiming for
herself more than just proportion of religious zeal.
Curiosity was on tip-toe when motion was made that a stenographer be
appointed. "'Snographer?' What's dat?" "Maybe it's de pusson whut takes
down de speeches befo' dee's spoken," explains a wise one. The riddle was
partly solved when a spruce, foreign individual of white complexion rose
and walked to the desk, vacated in his favour by a gentleman of colour.
"Dar he! dat's him!" "War's good close, anyhow!" was pronounced of the new
official; then the retired claimed sympathy: "Whut he done?" "Whut dee
tu'n him out fuh?" "Ain't dee gwi give niggers nothin'?" "Muzzling" was
not yet begun; this occasion for eloquence was not to be ignored by the
Honourable Lewis Lindsay, representing Richmond: "Mistah Presidet, I hopes
in dis late hour dat Ole Fuhginny am imperilated, dat no free-thinkin' man
kin suppose fuh one minute dat we 'sires tuh misrippersint de idee dat we
ain' qualify de sability uh de sternogphy uh dis convention. I hopes, suh,
dat we kin den be able tuh superhen' de principles uh de supposition."
Lindsay would always rise to an occasion if his coat-tails were not pulled
too hard. Fortunately, his matchless oration on the mixed school question
was not among gems lost to the world: "Mistah Presidet, de real flatform,
suh. I'll sw'ar tuh high Heaven. Yes, I'll sw'ar higher dan dat. I'll go
down an' de uth shall crumble intuh dus' befo' dee shall amalgamise my
rights. 'Bout dis question uh cyarpet-bags. Ef you cyarpet-baggers does go
back on us, woes be unto you! You better take yo' cyarpet-bags an' quit,
an' de quicker you git up an' git de better. I do not abdicate de
supperstition tuh dese strange frien's, lately so-called citizens uh
Fuhginny. Ef dee don' gimme my rights, I'll suffer dis country tuh be lak
Sarah. I'll suffer desterlation fus! When I blows my horn dee'll hear it!
When de big cannons was thund'in, an' de missions uh death was flyin' thu
de a'r, dee hollered: 'Come, Mr. Nigguh, come!' an' he done come! I'se
here tuh qualify my constituents. I'll sing tuh Rome an' tuh Englan' an'
tuh de uttermos' parts uh de uth--" "You must address yourself to the
Chair," said that functionary, ready to faint. "All right, suh. I'll not
'sire tuh maintain de House any longer."
That clause against mixed schools was a rock upon which the Radical party
split, white members with children voting for separate education of races;
most darkeys "didn' want no sech claw in de law"; yet one declared he
didn't want his "chillun tuh soshate wid rebels an' traitors nohow"; they
were "as high above rebels an' traitors ez Heaven 'bove hell!" Lindsay
took occasion to wither white "Radicules" with criticism on colour
distribution in the gallery. "Whar is de white Radicule members' wives
an' chillun?" he asked, waving his hand towards the white section. "When
dee comes here dee mos'ly set dar se'ves on dat side de House, whilst I
brings mine on dis side," waving towards the black, "irregardless uh how
white she is!"
Hodges, of Princess Anne, was an interesting member; wore large,
iron-rimmed spectacles and had a solemn, owl-like way of staring through
them. One day, he gave the convention the creeps: "Dar's a boy in dis
House," he said with awful gravity, "whar better be outen do's. He's done
seconded a motion." The House, following his accusing spectacles and
finger, fixed its eye upon a shrivelling mulatto youth who had slipped
into a member's chair. A coloured brother took the intruder's part.
Lindsay threw himself into the breach: "Mistah Presidet, I hears de
correspondence dat have passed an' de gemmun obsarves it have been
spoken." "I seen him open his mouf an' I seen de words come outen it!"
cried Hodges. The usurper, seizing the first instant Hodges turned his
head another way, fled for his life, while somebody was making motion "to
bring him before the bar."
The convention's thorn in the side was Eustace Gibson, white member from
Giles and Pulaski, who had a knack for making the convention see how
ridiculous it was. Negroes were famous for rising to "pints of order";
they laughed at themselves one day when two eloquent members became
entangled and fell down in a heap in the aisle and Mr. Gibson, gravely
rising to a point of order, moved that it was "not parliamentary for two
persons to occupy the floor at one time." When questions of per diem
arose, sable eloquence flowed like a cataract and Gibson's wit played like
lightning over the torrents. Muzzling was difficult. "Mistah Churman, ef
I may be allowed tuh state de perquisition--" a member would begin and get
no further before a persuasive hand on his coat-tails would reduce him to
silence. Dr. Bayne's coat-tails resisted force and appeal.
"I wants $9, I does," he said. "But den I ain' gwi be dissatisfied wid
$8.50. Cose, I kin live widout dat half a dollar ef I choose tuh. But ef I
don' choose tuh? Anybody got anything tuh say 'gins dat? Hey? Here we is
sleepin' 'way f'om home, leavin' our wives an' our expenses uh bode an'
washin'. Why, whut you gwi do wid de po' delegate dat ain' got no expenses
uh bode an' washin'? Tell me dat? Why, you fo'ce 'em tuh steal, an' make
dar constituen's look upon 'em as po' narrer-minded fellers." One member
murmured plaintively: "I ain' had no money paid me sence 'lection--"
"Shew! She-ew! Shew!" his coat-tails were almost jerked off. "You gwi tell
suppin you ain' got no business!" "Mr. Churman, I adject. De line whar's
his line, an' dat's de line I contain fuh--" "Shew! She-ew! Set down!"
"What de Bible say 'bout it?" demanded a pious brother. "De Bible it say:
'Pay de labour' de higher.' Who gwi 'spute de Book?" "This debate has
already cost the State $400," Mr. Gibson interposed wearily.
They finally agreed to worry along upon $8 a day--a lower per diem than
was claimed, I believe, in any other State. When the per diem question
bobbed up again, State funds were running low, but motion for adjournment
died when it was learned that of the $100,000 in the treasury when the
convention began to sit, $30,000 remained. Retrenchment was in order,
however, and the "Snographer's" head fell. He was impeached for charging
$3.33 a page for spider-legs, which he was not translating into English.
Mr. Gibson showed that he had been drawing $200 a day in advance for ten
days; had drawn $2,000 for the month of February, yet had not submitted
work for January. The convention began to negotiate a $90,000 loan on its
own note to pay itself to sit longer, when our war lord came to the front
and gave opinion that it had sat long enough to do what it had been called
to do, and that after ten days per diems must cease. Another hurrying
process was said to be at work. Reports were abroad that the Ku Klux,
having reached conclusion that Richmond had been neglected, was on the
way. Solid reason for adjournment was death of the per diem; but for which
the convention might have been sitting yet.
The morning of the last day, the sergeant-at-arms flung wide the door,
announcing General Schofield, who, entering with Colonels Campbell, Wherry
and Mallory, of his Staff, was escorted to the Speaker's stand. He came to
protest against constitutional clauses disqualifying white Virginians. He
said: "You cannot find in Virginia a full number of men capable of filling
office who can take the oath you have prescribed. County offices pay
limited salary; even a common labourer could not afford to come from
abroad for the purpose of filling them. I have no hesitation in saying
that I do not believe it possible to inaugurate a government upon that
basis." It was a business man's argument, an appeal to patriotism and
common sense. It failed. When he went out, they called him "King
Schofield," and retained those clauses in the instrument which they
ratified that night when the hands on the clocks of the Capitol pointed to
twelve and the Midnight Constitution came to birth.
When General Schofield left in 1868 to become Secretary of War, the
leading paper said: "General Schofield has been the best of all the
military commandants placed over the Southern States. He has saved
Virginia from much humiliation and distress that other States have
suffered." What he did for Virginia, General Gillem, General Hancock and
some other commanders tried to do for districts under their command.
General Stoneman, who succeeded General Schofield, also fought the
test-oath clauses.
When our Committee of Nine went to Washington to protest against those
clauses, General Schofield appeared with them before President-elect Grant
and one of General Grant's first acts as President was to arrange with
Congress that Virginia should have the privilege of voting upon those
clauses and the constitution separately, and that other States should have
like privileges in regard to similar clauses in their constitutions.
Every American should study the history in detail of each Southern State
during the period of which I write. He should acquaint himself at first
hand with the attitude of the South when the war closed, and in this
connection I particularly refer my reader to the address Governor Allen
delivered to the people of Louisiana before going to Mexico, where he died
in exile; and to the addresses of Perry, of South Carolina, and
Throckmorton, of Texas.[19] He should compare the character and costs of
the first legislatures and conventions assembling and the character and
costs of the mongrel bodies succeeding them. He will then take himself in
hand and resolve never to follow blindly the leadership of any party, nor
attempt to put in practice in another man's home the abstract theories of
speculative humanitarians.
SECRET SOCIETIES