It appears, then, these two general types of legislation, the one
proposing local improvements, the other seeking social justice for the
Negro race, were preeminent in the measures proposed by the Negro
Congressmen. On the other hand, however, most of these measures,
regardless of merit, met in general one of three fates: they were
either sidetracked in committee, reported adversely, or defeated after
debate in open session.
The character of measures proposed by these Congressmen has been the
subject of much adverse criticism. Not a few persons have considered
as weakness the tendency to propose measures relating to local
improvements, and those racial rather than national in character. The
records of Congress show, however, that the motives impelling the
Negro Congressmen to propose the type of legislation stated differed
in no wise from those underlying similar actions of other Congressmen.
Discussing the service of Congress, Mr. Munro, in his _Government of
the United States_, says: "First among the merits of congressional
government as it has existed in the United States for over one hundred
and thirty years, is the fidelity with which law-making has reflected
the public opinion of the country."[113] Mr. Munro further says that
while Congress has not always been immediately responsive to popular
sentiment, it has seldom failed to act when there has come to it an
"audible mandate" from the whole country.
If, therefore, the Congress as a whole must be somewhat immediately
responsive to the expressed public will, what, indeed, is the precise
course of action that a representative, as a matter of policy, must
pursue? He is regarded, in the first instance, as representing not his
State, but rather a particular Congressional district of his State.
His tenure of office runs for but two years, at the expiration of
which he must submit to his constituents not a record of constructive
statesmanship, based upon his fealty to measures of national or
international importance, but rather one alleging the skill with which
he has protected the peculiar interests of his district. That he has
sought to obtain a new customs house, has opposed a tariff for revenue
only, has defended the principle of bimetallism, not indeed in
relation to the wider demands of the nation, but because of the
particular demands of his constituency, are matters of great practical
import to him, for upon these depends the approval or the rejection of
his record. The Congressman who aspires to longevity of service is
apt, therefore, to determine his proposal and defense of measures of
legislation largely, if not wholly, by the expressed opinion of those
whom he represents. Regarding the Negro Congressmen, therefore, in the
light of the practices common to all Congressmen, there can be offered
no valid criticism of the character of their legislation. The records
of Congress show that these functionaries were, as a matter of
policy, interested in their constituents, and that they promoted
legislation for general advancement for the reason that the
circumstances of the people whom they represented warranted
legislation of that sort.
For the tendency of some of the Negro Congressmen to propose
legislative measures which were racial in character, two reasons are
conspicuously obvious. In the first place, these men regarded
themselves the official spokesmen of their race. The power conferred
upon them they believed to be evidence of the expectation and
confidence of the Negroes in them to secure for the race civil rights,
economic opportunity and political preferment. They found, moreover,
that legislation granting to Negroes their civil rights failed often
to protect them in the exercise of those rights. For such protection,
then, these Congressmen had often to contend. These personal, ever
present, inherent duties permitted these Congressmen neither time nor
energy for the preparation of legislative measures of other types.
Another reason for restricting their efforts to local measures or
those peculiar to their race was the rule of politics that all honor
for the formulation of national measures must attach to the seasoned
veterans in Congress. This custom has become so well established as to
be traditional. It could not have been expected that the Negro
members, then, should take the lead in Congressional legislation. They
faithfully cooperated with the leaders of Congress and generally voted
for measures considered productive of the greatest good of the
country.
Why did the Negro Congressmen fail to have their measures enacted into
law? The path of a bill is fraught with difficulties. The well-known
journey through the committee, through both houses of Congress, to the
conference and to the President, but few bills complete. Many bills of
the Negro Congressmen died of this natural cause. Others because of
lack of merit were reported adversely from committee; still others
reported favorably could not withstand the Congressional debate. A few
that survived the whole ordeal became laws.
There were two preeminent causes for the failure of some of these
bills. The Negro membership in any Congress, in the first place always
an exceedingly small minority, was never a determining factor in the
passage of a measure proposed by one of this particular group.
Secondly, the objects of the suspicion of their party colleagues,[114]
and regarded by them as an experiment in the legislative program of
the nation, these men were not generally able to secure for their
measures sufficient white Republican votes. Considered from this point
of view, the failure of these measures is in no wise an evidence of
the lack of ability and statesmanship.
Of them, James G. Blaine, a Republican leader of fifty years ago, has
spoken in a most praiseworthy manner. Conceding the right of the
Negroes to sit in Congress and attesting the success of their
activities there, he asserted that "they were as a rule studious,
earnest, ambitious men, whose public conduct--as illustrated by Mr.
Revels and Mr. Bruce in the Senate, and by Mr. Rapier, Mr. Lynch and
Mr. Rainey in the House--would be honorable to any race."[115]