fell upon them with cruel surprise. For they are people without many
friends and are hard pressed in this boasted land of the free and home
of the brave. They are hard pressed in every part of the Republic by an
increasing race prejudice, by a bitter colorphobia which forgets that
they are weak, forgets their claim at the hands of a Christian nation to
just and equal treatment to the end that they may do and become as other
men with a race and color different from their own. Blows they are
receiving thick and fast from their enemies whose name is legion, blows
against their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in
the South and in the North. We are accustomed as a race to such blows.
Cruel as they are and hard to bear, yet they do not take us by surprise.
For we have learned by long and bitter experience to look for them from
a people who loudly proclaim, in season and out, their belief in the
principles of democracy and of Christianity. But when an old friend
turns against us, and strikes too like an ancient enemy, such a blow is
more grievous to bear, and seems crueler than death itself. The blow of
an old friend is always the unkindest blow of all. One is never prepared
for it, and when it falls the wound which it inflicts cuts deeper than
flesh and blood, for the iron of it enters the soul itself. And so it
happened to us, when, two years ago, the cruel wrong of that executive
order was done to our brave boys in blue by the hand of a trusted
friend, the apostle of the "square deal."
Who can describe the shock of that first terrible amazement, the hot
indignation felt by a race at the huge injustice, at the Draconian
severity of that order which expelled from the American Army one hundred
and sixty-seven men without trial of any kind and on a mere suspicion of
their guilt, and which made them forever ineligible to employment
thereafter in any department of the National Government, whether on its
civil, military, or naval side, and the deep consternation which filled
the homes of every colored man in the land--North and South alike? I for
one can not describe those feelings, although I experienced in unison
with the race at the time the amazement, the indignation, and the
consternation which swept us together and caused us to feel and speak
and act as one man under the wrong done us by the hand of an old friend
whose golden words of hope and fair play we had sometime written in
letters of light on the tablets of our hearts. It is no slight matter
for any man, whether he be President or private citizen, so to wound the
sense of right of a whole race, so to shock its faith in the justice
and righteousness of its rulers and government, as that cruel blunder of
the President of the United States produced among the colored people of
the entire country.
We lifted up our voice as the voice of many waters from one end of the
land to the other in loud protest against the wrong, in stern
denunciation of it, and the press of the North came nobly to our
assistance and swelled the volume of our protest and denunciation. But
alas, all this volume of protest and denunciation on the part of the
race and of the press would have passed over the nation and the
Government like a summer storm of wind and rain--so little do our
outcries against injustice and oppression excite the attention and
sympathy of the Republic any more--had there not arisen in the Senate of
the United States a man for the hour, had not God raised him up to
defend his little ones against the slings and arrows of a sleepless
energy, of an almost omnipotent power seated in the highest place of the
Government. It was the genius, the grandeur of soul of a great man who
was able to gather into thunderbolt after thunderbolt all the sense of
outraged justice on the part of race and press, and to hurl them with
marvelous precision and overwhelming might against that cruel executive
order and the hosts of words and messages and other hordes of blood-dyed
epithets which the President marshalled and sent forth from time to time
in defense of his Draconian decree. If there was sleepless energy in the
White House, there was an energy just as sleepless on the floor of the
Senate. The almost omnipotent power wielded for the destruction of the
Black Battalion by the formidable occupant of the executive mansion was
met and matched, ay, overmatched again and again by an omnipotence in
discussion which a just cause and genius as orator, lawyer, and debater
of the first rank could alone have put into the strong right arm of the
brave redresser of a race's wrongs on the floor of the Senate. For more
than two years he carried the case of the Black Battalion in his big and
tireless brain, in his big and gentle heart, as a mother carries under
her bosom her unborn babe. God alone knows what sums of money, what deep
thought and solicitude, what unflagging energy, what unceasing labor, he
spent in his holy and self-imposed task to right the wrongs of those
helpless and persecuted men. In the Senate their case pursued him like a
shadow, and at home it sat with him like a ghost in his library, and
slept for a few hours only when the great brain slept and the generous
heart rested from the pain which was torturing it. Sir, did you know
what love went out to you during those tremendous months of toil and
struggle, and what prayers from the grateful hearts of ten millions of
people?
Yes, he was one man against the whole power of the Administration and
all that that meant. Perhaps we do not fully understand what a colossal
power that was to confront and grapple with. Almost single-handed he met
that power and threw it again and again in the arena of debate. Every
speech he made in behalf of his clients, whether on the floor of the
Senate or outside of that body, was as terrible as an army with banners
to the enemies of the Black Battalion who had now, alas, become his
enemies too, and who were bent on the destruction of both, the defender
and the defended alike. But he did not hesitate or quail before that
power and the danger which threatened his political life. As the battle
thickened and perils gathered fast about his head he fought the fight of
the Black Battalion as few men in the history of the Republic have ever
fought for the weak, for a just cause against organized power and
oppression in the high places of the Government. Senator Foraker was one
man, but Senator Foraker was a host in himself. We know this, but the
enemies of the Black Battalion know it better than we do, for wherever
they appeared on the field of action during those two years, whether
with their sappers and miners or assaulting columns, there they found
him alert, dauntless, invincible--their sappers and miners hoisted with
their own petard, their assaulting columns routed and driven to cover
before the withering, the deadly fire from the flashing cannon of his
facts, his logic, his law, and his eloquence. Sir, God knows that I
would rather have fought the fight which you fought so gloriously than
be a Senator of the United States, day, than be President of the
Republic itself. For it is better to be a brave and just and true man
than to be either Senator or President, or both.
"Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his
friends." This is what Senator Foraker has done for the Black Battalion
and for the principles of law and liberty which underlie their case. He
has given his political life, his seat in the Senate, all the honor and
power which were his had he chosen to defend the order of the
President, discharging those one hundred and sixty-seven men without
trial of any kind from the Army which their valor had helped to make
glorious--instead of the soldiers whom he did not know but whose pitiful
case, whose unjust and cruel punishment, enlisted the sympathy of his
great heart and the masterly labors of his tireless brain. Yes, I
repeat, and do not let it ever be forgotten by us as a race, that
Senator Foraker might to-day be his own successor in the United States
Senate had he chosen to play in the "Brownsville" affair the part of
defender of President Roosevelt's wanton abuse and usurpation of
executive power, instead of taking the side of the Black Battalion and
the fundamental principle of our law and Constitution that each man
accused of crime is entitled to trial before he is condemned and
punished. He chose the side of the weak, of justice, and the
Constitution in this great struggle, and not that of power and the
Administration. This was the sin which brought upon him all the wrath of
that power and of that Administration, but of which all good men and
true absolve and for which they honor him, and for which, besides, a
grateful race enshrines him in its heart of hearts. For he preferred to
suffer affliction with the Black Battalion and to suffer defeat for the
Senatorship rather than enjoy power and office as the price of his
desertion of the cause of those helpless men.
No man can give as much as Senator Foraker has given to a just cause,
give as generously, as unselfishly, gloriously as he has given of his
very self in this "Brownsville" case and lose that which is best
striving for in life. He may lose place in the Government and power as
a political leader. But what are these but the ephemera of man's fevered
existence and strivings here below? "What shadows we are," Burke said on
a memorable occasion in his contest for a seat in Parliament, "and what
shadows we pursue." Office, power, popularity; what are they but shadows
of passing clouds which a breath blows to us and a breath blows from us
again. No man loses anything in reality when he loses such fleeting,
such shadowy possessions. But if for the sake of them he loses truth,
justice, goodness, his love of the right and his hatred of the wrong,
his sympathy for the oppressed, his passion to help God's little ones,
such a man has bartered away his soul, the immortal part of him for a
rood of grass, which to-day flourisheth and to-morrow withereth and is
cast into the oven of all transitory and perishable possessions.
How many men who now hold seats in the United States Senate or the House
of Representatives do we even know the names of? How many of all that
long procession of them who have been passing for more than a century
though those halls of power have we so much as heard the names of? They
have filed through those stately chambers to dusty death and oblivion,
and the places which knew them once know them no more forever. A few
names only are remembered among all the multitude of them, not because
of the places they occupied or the power they wielded, but because while
in those houses they chose the better part--chose not to busy themselves
with shadows, with the things which perish, but seized and held fast to
the eternal verities of justice and freedom and human brotherhood. The
vast majority of them magnified their brief authority and neglected the
opportunity which their offices offered them to link their names and
official lives with some noble movement or measure for the betterment of
their kind, for the lifting up of those who were down, the strengthening
of those who were weak, the succor of those who were hard pressed by
man's inhumanity to man.
It is beautiful to defend those who can not defend themselves, to lift
up the weak, to succor those who are ready to perish. It is heroic,
divine, when the doing so involves peril and sacrifice of self. It is
the essence of the Gospel preached and lived by one who spoke and lived
as never man spoke and lived. It is simple and undefiled Christianity.
Nothing avails to make Senator or President or people Christian but just
this one thing--not race or color or creed, not learning and wealth and
civilization--but kindness to God's poor, to Christ's little ones. Did
you feed them when they were hungry; did you give them to drink when
they were thirsty; did you visit and comfort them when they were in
prison? Those who do these things to the humblest and the blackest of
these little ones of the Republic have done them unto the divine Master,
are in truth His disciples; and those who do them not are not His
followers, whatever may be their profession, but quite the contrary.
They have no part or lot with Him but belong to the evil forces of the
world which are forever opposing the coming of His righteous Kingdom on
earth when all men shall be brothers, when the strong shall everywhere
bear the burdens of the weak.
Inasmuch as William Lloyd Garrison, Charles Sumner, Wendell Phillips,
John Brown, and Abraham Lincoln did it to the least of His little ones
in this Republic, they did it unto Him. They are a goodly company, the
glorious company of the elect of the Republic, its prophets, its
priests, and its kings. And, Sir, inasmuch as you, too, did it to the
Black Battalion in their dire need, you did it unto Christ, and you are
now henceforth and forevermore to enter into the supreme joy of that
supreme service and sacrifice. You lost, Sir, your seat in the Senate,
it is true, but you have won an enduring place in a race's heart, its
enduring love and gratitude, and the plaudit of the divine Master, "Well
done, good and faithful servant," uttered from the lips of all good men
and true the country over.
EQUALITY OF RIGHTS FOR ALL CITIZENS, BLACK AND WHITE, ALIKE[40]
BY REV. FRANCIS J. GRIMKE, D. D.
_I Cor. 16:13. "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith,
quit you like men, be strong."_
[Note 40: A discourse delivered in the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian
Church, Washington, D. C., Sunday, March 7, 1909.]
It has been my custom for many years to speak during the inaugural week
on some phase of the race question. I have done it because usually at
such times there are representatives of our race here from all parts of
the country, and an opportunity is thus afforded of reaching a larger
number than would be possible at any other time. Such occasions, it
seems to me, should be utilized in the interest of the race, in the
discussion of matters pertaining to the race. The inauguration of a
President is an event in which the whole nation is interested, and which
emphasizes the fact of citizenship, as perhaps nothing else does, coming
as it does after the election, and growing out of it. On such occasions
it is well for us, therefore, especially at this juncture of our
history, not to be unmindful of our own citizenship, of our own status
in the body politic.
We have just been celebrating, all over the country, the centennial of
the birth of Abraham Lincoln, our great war President, and this
inauguration coming so soon after, makes it especially a good time to
talk about some of the questions which grew out of the war, and which
were settled by it. And this is what I want to do this morning.
Over forty years ago the great struggle ended, the "irrepressible
conflict" came to a close. It marked an epoch in the history of our
country, and in the history of the black race in this country. Certain
great questions, which had agitated the country for years, were settled,
and settled for all time.
* * * * *
It is now no longer a question as to whether we are a nation, or a
confederation of sovereign and independent States. That question is
settled, and settled once for all by the issue of the War. It is not
likely that any Southern State will ever again attempt to withdraw from
the Union, or to act on the assumption that it has the right to do so.
Even if it is foolish enough to entertain such a view, it will be sure
never again to act upon it. The issue of the War has removed forever
from the field of serious discussion this question of the right of a
State to secede. The ghost of secession will never again arise to
disturb the peace of the Union. The Stars and Stripes, the old flag,
will float, as long as it floats, over all these States, from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Lakes to the Gulf. If the time ever
comes when we shall go to pieces, it will not be from any desire or
disposition on the part of the States to pull apart, but from inward
corruption, from the disregard of right principles, from the spirit of
greed, from the narrowing lust of gold, from losing sight of the fact
that "righteousness exalteth a nation, but that sin is a reproach to
any people." It is here where our real danger lies--not in the secession
of States from the Union, but in the secession of the Union itself from
the great and immutable principles of right, of justice, of fair play
for all regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
The fact that the Union has been saved, that these rebellious States
have been brought back into it, will amount to nothing unless it can be
saved from this still greater peril that threatens it. The secession of
the Southern States in 1860 was a small matter compared with the
secession of the Union itself from the great principles enunciated in
the Declaration of Independence, in the Golden Rule, in the Ten
Commandments, in the Sermon on the Mount. Unless we hold, and hold
firmly to these great fundamental principles of righteousness, of
social, political, and economic wisdom, our Union, as Mr. Garrison
expressed it, will be "only a covenant with death and an agreement with
hell." If it continues to exist it will be a curse, and not a blessing.
Our brave boys in blue, whose bodies lie moldering in the grave, but
whose souls are marching on, settled the question of the Union of the
States. It is for the patriotic men who are living to-day, and those who
are to follow in their footsteps, to deal with this larger and more
important question. It isn't enough that these States are held together,
they must be held together on right principles--principles of justice,
of equity, of fair play, of equality before the law for all alike.
Whether there is patriotism, political wisdom, moral insight and stamina
enough to lead men to forget their differences on minor matters and to
unite their forces for the attainment of this greater and more important
end, remains to be seen. There are so many who are controlled by their
petty prejudices, whose views are so narrow and contracted, that they
seem incapable of appreciating the things of prime importance, the
things that are fundamental in the life of the nation, and upon which
its future peace and prosperity depend. The fear of rebellion is forever
gone. It is not so, however, with regard to the danger of which I am
speaking--the danger of the nation divorcing itself from sound political
and moral principles.
* * * * *
In the scheme of citizenship of our country for years following the
close of the war the Negro had no part; and he had no part because he
was looked upon as an inferior. "Subordination to the superior race is
declared to be his natural and moral condition." His inferiority was
asserted to be a "great physical, philosophical, and moral truth."
And this is exactly the Southern view to-day; and is exactly the
programme to which it is committed. Its whole attitude to-day is in
harmony with the great principle upon which the Southern Confederacy was
founded--the non-recognition of the Negro as an equal in any
respect--socially, civilly, politically. The South holds to this view
just as tenaciously to-day as it did when Mr. Stephens made his Great
Cornerstone Speech in 1861. The Ku Klux Klan, the White Caps, the Red
Shirt Brigade, tissue ballots, the revised constitutions with their
grandfather clauses, Jim Crow Car legislation, the persistent effort of
the South to disfranchise the Negro--all these things have grown out of
the idea that the rightful place of the Negro is that of subordination
to the white man, that he has no rightful place in the body politic.
* * * * *
But I cannot believe that the nation is always going to leave its loyal
black citizens to be despoiled of their civil and political rights by
the men who sought to destroy the Union. A better day is coming, and
coming soon, I trust.
While we are waiting, however, for the nation to come to its
senses--waiting for a revival of the spirit of justice and of true
democracy in the land--it is important for us to remember that much,
very much, will depend upon ourselves. In the passage of Scripture read
in our hearing at the beginning of this discourse, three things we are
exhorted to do, and must do, if we are ever to secure our rights in this
land: We are exhorted to be watchful. "Watch ye," is the exhortation. We
are to be on our guard. "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."
There are enemies ever about us and are ever plotting our ruin--enemies
within the race and without it. We have got to live in the consciousness
of this fact. If we assume that all is well, that there is nothing to
fear, and so relax our vigilance, so cease to be watchful, we need not
be surprised if our enemies get the better of us, if we are worsted in
the conflict.
(2) We are exhorted to stand fast in the faith. In the faith we feel
that, as American citizens, we are entitled to the same rights and
privileges as other citizens of the Republic. In this faith we are to
stand, and stand fast. We are not to give it up; we are not to allow
anyone, white or black, friend or foe, to induce us to retreat a single
inch from this position.
(3) We are exhorted to quit ourselves like men, to be strong. And by
this, I understand, is meant that we are to stand up in a manly way for
our rights; that we are to seek by every honorable means the full
enjoyment of our rights. It is still true--
"Who would be free himself must strike the blow."
And, if we are ever to be free from invidious distinctions in this
country, based upon race, color, previous condition, we have got to be
alive, wide-awake to our own interest. If we are not, we have no right
to expect others to be; we have no right to expect anything but failure,
but defeat. And we deserve defeat if ours is the spirit of indifference,
of unconcern. We are not going to secure our rights in this land without
a struggle. We have got to contend, and contend earnestly, for what
belongs to us. Victory isn't coming in any other way. No silent
acquiescence on our part in the wrongs from which we are suffering,
contrary to law; no giving of ourselves merely to the work of improving
our condition, materially, intellectually morally, spiritually, however
zealously pursued, is going to bring relief. We have got, in addition to
the effort we are making to improve ourselves, to keep up the
agitation, and keep it up until right triumphs and wrong is put down. A
programme of silence on the part of the race is a fool's programme.
Reforms, changes in public sentiment, the righting of wrongs, are never
effected in that way; and our wrongs will never be. A race that sits
quietly down and rests in sweet content in the midst of the wrongs from
which it is suffering is not worth contending for, is not worth saving.
This is not true of this race, however. We are not sitting down in sweet
content, let it be said to our credit. I thank God from the bottom of my
heart for these mutterings of discontent that are heard in all parts of
the land. The fact that we are dissatisfied with present conditions, and
that we are becoming more and more so, shows that we are growing in
manhood, in self-respect, in the qualities that will enable us to win
out in the end. It is our duty to keep up the agitation for our rights,
not only for our sakes, but also for the sake of the nation at large. It
would not only be against our own interest not to do so, but it would be
unpatriotic for us quietly to acquiesce in the present condition of
things, for it is a wrong condition of things. If justice sleeps in this
land, let it not be because we have helped to lull it to sleep by our
silence, our indifference; let it not be from lack of effort on our part
to arouse it from its slumbers. Elijah said to the prophets of Baal,
while they were crying to their god, "Peradventure he sleepeth." And it
may be that he was asleep; but it was not their fault that he continued
asleep, for they kept up a continual uproar about his altar. And so
here, sleeping Justice in this land may go on slumbering, but let us see
to it that it is due to no fault of ours. Even Baalam's ass cried out in
protest when smitten by his brutal master, and God gave him the power to
cry out, endowed him miraculously with speech in which to voice his
protest.