THE NEW ERA.
The close of the Rebellion opened to the negro a new era in his
history. The chains of slavery had been severed; and although he had
not been clothed with all the powers of the citizen, the black man was,
nevertheless, sure of all his rights being granted, for revolutions
seldom go backward. With the beginning of the work of reconstruction,
the right of the negro to the ballot came legitimately before the
country, and brought with it all the virus of negro hate that could be
thought of. President Andrew Johnson threw the weight of his official
influence into the scales against the newly-liberated people, which
for a time cast a dark shadow over the cause of justice and freedom.
Congress, however, by its Constitutional amendments, settled the
question, and clothed the blacks with the powers of citizenship; and
with their white fellow-citizens they entered the reconstruction
conventions, and commenced the work of bringing their states back into
the Union. This was a trying position for the recently enfranchised
blacks; for slavery had bequeathed to them nothing but poverty,
ignorance, and dependence upon their former owners for employment and
the means of sustaining themselves and their families. The transition
through which they passed during the war, had imparted to some a
smattering of education; and this, with the natural aptitude of the
negro for acquiring, made the colored men appear to advantage in
whatever position they were called to take part.
The speeches delivered by some of these men in the conventions and
state legislatures exhibit a depth of thought, flights of eloquence,
and civilized statesmanship, that throw their former masters far in the
background.
In the work of reconstruction, the colored men had the advantage
of being honest and sincere in what they undertook, and labored
industriously for the good of the country.
The riots in various Southern states, following the enfranchising of
the men of color, attest the deep-rooted prejudice existing with the
men who once so misruled the rebellious states. In Georgia, Tennessee,
and Louisiana, these outbursts of ill feeling caused the loss of many
lives, and the destruction of much property. No true Union man, white
or black, was safe. The Constitutional amendment, which gave the ballot
to the black men of the North in common with their brethren of the
South, aroused the old pro-slavery feeling in the free states, which
made it scarcely safe for the newly enfranchised to venture to the
polls on the day of election in some of the Northern cities. The cry
that this was a “white man’s government,” was raised from one end of
the country to the other by the Democratic press, and the Taney theory
that “black men had no rights that white men were bound to respect,”
was revived, with all its negro hate.
Military occupation of the South was all that saved the freedmen
from destruction. Under it, they were able to take part in the
various Constitutional and Legislative elections, and to hold seats
in those bodies. As South Carolina had been the most conspicuous in
the Rebellion, so she was the first to return to the Union, and to
recognize the political equality of the race whom in former days she
had bought and sold. Her Senate hall, designed to echo the eloquence
of the Calhouns, the McDuffies, the Hammonds, the Hamptons, and the
Rhetts, has since resounded with the speeches of men who were once her
bond slaves. Ransier, the negro, now fills the chair of President of
the Senate, where once sat the proud and haughty Calhoun; while Nash,
the tall, gaunt, full-blooded negro, speaks in the plantation dialect
from the desk in which Wade Hampton in former days stood. The State
is represented in Congress by Elliott, Rainey, and De Large. South
Carolina submitted quietly to her destiny.
Not so, however, with Georgia. At the election in November, 1867,
for members to the State Convention, thirty thousand white and
eighty thousand colored votes were polled, and a number of colored
delegates elected. A Constitution was framed and ratified, and a
Legislature elected under it was convened. After all this, supposing
they had passed beyond Congressional control, the Rebel element in
the Legislature asserted itself; and many of those whose disabilities
had been removed by the State Convention, which comprised a number of
colored members, joined in the declaration which was made by that
Legislature, that a man having more than one-eighth of African blood in
his veins was ineligible to office.
These very men to whom the Republican party extended all the rights
and privileges of citizenship, of which they had deprived themselves,
denied political equality to a large majority of their fellow-citizens.
Twenty-eight members were expelled on December 22, 1869; an Act of
Congress was passed requiring the re-assembling of the persons declared
elected by the military commander, the restoration of the expelled
members, and the rejection of others, who were disqualified.
The expulsion of the ex-rebels from the Georgia Legislature, and the
admission of the loyal colored men, whose seats had been forcibly
taken from them, had a good effect upon all the Southern States, for
it showed that the national administration was determined that justice
should be done.
The prompt admission of Hiram R. Revels to a seat in the United States
Senate from Mississippi, showed that progress was the watch-word of
the Republican party. The appointments of E. D. Bassett as Minister to
Hayti, and J. Milton Turner as Consul-General to Liberia, set at rest
all doubt with regard to the views of President Grant, and the negro’s
political equality.
In 1869, colored men, for the first time in the history of the District
of Columbia, were drawn as jurors, and served with white men. This was
the crowning event of that glorious emancipation which began at the
capital, and radiated throughout the length and breadth of the nation.
Since then, one by one, distinguishing lines have been erased, and now
the black man is deemed worthy to participate in all the privileges of
an American citizen.
The election of Oscar J. Dunn as Lieutenant-Governor of Louisiana,
was a triumph which gladdened the hearts of his race from Maine to
California. Alabama sent B. S. Turner to Congress; Florida, J. T.
Walls, while colored men entered the Legislative halls of several
states not named in this connection.
The National Republican Convention, held at Philadelphia in June, 1872,
received as delegates a number of colored men, and for the first time
in the history of Presidential conventions, the negro’s voice was heard
and applauded.
Education is what we now need, and education we must have, at all
hazards. Wilberforce and Avery Colleges, and Lincoln University, have
all done good service. Howard University, Lincoln Institute, Hampton
Manual Labor School, and Fisk University, are harbingers of light to
our people. But we need an educated ministry; and until we have it, the
masses will grope in darkness. The cause of Temperance, that John the
Baptist of reforms, must be introduced into every community, and every
other method resorted to by the whites for their elevation should be
used by the colored men.
Our young men must be encouraged to enter the various professions,
and to become mechanics, and thereby lay the foundation for future
usefulness.
An ignorant man will trust to luck for success; an educated man will
make success. God helps those who help themselves.