Ever alert to the educational needs of the colored youth, Senator
Bruce introduced, among many other bills, during the second session of
the Forty-sixth Congress, a bill:
To provide for the investment of certain unclaimed pay and bounty
moneys now in the Treasury of the United States and to facilitate
and encourage the education of the colored race in the several
States and Territories.
The bill was referred to the _Committee on Education and Labor_,
amended by Mr. Pendleton of Ohio, and reported back adversely and
postponed indefinitely.[15]
Senator Bruce was not returned to the Forty-seventh Congress. The
record, however, which he made in the Forty-fourth, Forty-fifth, and
Forty-sixth Congresses will ever maintain for him a prominent place
among the progressive and constructive statesmen of this country. And
here our account should end if it were not for the fact that some of
our readers will want a glimpse of some of the significant events in
Senator Brace's life, exclusive of his career in the Senate. A
condensed account of such facts will suffice.
Senator Bruce was not a native Mississippian. He was born in the
little town of Farmville, Virginia. At an early age, he made his way
to Missouri, thence to Mississippi where he arrived in 1868. In 1878,
he married Miss Josephine B. Wilson, of Cleveland, Ohio, a lady of
most excellent parts and refined culture. A son, Roscoe Conklin, was
born in 1879--a polished gentleman by birth, an educator by training,
an orator and debater by choice, and a scholar by nature. Both wife
and son survive the late Senator.[16]
Senator Bruce belonged to that rugged, self-made type of manhood that
did right to prosper in this world and hope for felicity in the next.
He studied under private tutors and spent two years at Oberlin
College. Like many successful statesmen, he served his time in the
classroom as a teacher. It was during his teaching career that he was
persuaded by Henry Ward Beecher to enter the Christian ministry, but
the inward voice did not respond to the ministerial call.
Though his tenure of office as United States Senator lasted but one
full term of six years, he was given further opportunities for public
service. From 1881 to 1885, he served as Register of the Treasury,
having been appointed to this office by President Garfield. In 1889,
during the administration of President Benjamin Harrison, he was
appointed Recorder of Deeds when the office was operated under a
system of fees which netted from twelve to fifteen thousand dollars a
year. President McKinley called him a second time to the office of
Register of the Treasury, in which position he remained until his
death in 1898.