The West Virginia Collegiate Institute, Institute, W. Va.
_Dear Sir:_ I am still confined to the house, not having been
outside since the last week of December. When we get some good
sunshiny weather I will venture out. I am writing this to let you
know how much I enjoyed reading your very interesting article
"Negro Congressmen a Generation After," in the April number of
The Journal of Negro History. This article and Dr. Woodson's
"Fifty Years of Negro Citizenship as Qualified by the United
States Supreme Court" are worth the subscription price to The
Journal.
As your article is now in permanent form and no doubt will be
quoted frequently, there are one or two little slips that I would
like to invite your attention to, feeling that you, like myself,
believe in accuracy.
On page 130, foot note relative to Mr. Rainey you have not
included his service in the 41st Congress. He was seated in that
Congress on December 12, 1870, to succeed Mr. Whittemore, who was
unseated on account of a serious charge brought against him. Mr.
Rainey was the first Negro Congressman. Mr. Long was seated in
the same Congress, but later--January 16, 1871. This would give
Mr. Rainey a record of five Congresses. On the same page (130)
foot note relative to General Smalls, you have him as a member of
five Congresses. My record does not show him a member of the
_47th_ Congress. Mr. Rainey holds the record for length of
service. In connection with Mr. Rainey's record I will state that
he was the only one of the Negro congressmen who presided over
the House of Representatives, that courtesy was extended to him
by Speaker Blaine. Altho the House was democratic he was honored
by the Republican caucus at one time for Clerkship of the House,
showing the esteem in which he was held by his colleagues, after
he retired from the House. Page 134--High Hollow Academy should
be High Holborn Academy. On the same page, foot note, it is
stated that Gen. Elliott resigned from Congress to accept the
office of sheriff. While Gen. Elliott had his official residence
in Aiken county, he and Mrs. Elliott had their home in Columbia,
one of the show places of the city. I cannot conceive of him
resigning the position of congressman to accept the insignificant
office of sheriff of the small county of Aiken. He resigned in
order to go to the House of Representatives at Columbia for the
purpose of being elected Speaker of that body, and he succeeded.
The other time he resigned was for the purpose of being a
candidate for the U. S. Senatorship, but the Pennsylvania R. R.
interests put John J. Patterson, who was a Cameron protege, over.
Had he been elected sheriff of Aiken county it would have
necessitated his living there.
On page 139--"From the year 1871--the period of service of the
first Negro in Congress" should be _1870_--Rainey, Dec. 12, 1870.
The greatest compliment I think that was ever paid to a Negro by
a prominent white man was that by Benjamin F. Butler, the
distinguished Union General, afterwards Governor of
Massachusetts, and who had charge of Sumner's civil rights bill
in the House of Representatives. In the prefatory remarks to his
speech on the day following the great speech made by Gen. Elliott
on the same bill, he said:
"I should have considered more at length the constitutional
argument, were it not for the exhaustive presentation by the
gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Elliott) of the law, and the
only law quoted against us in this case that has been cited, to
wit, the Slaughter-House cases. He, with the true instinct of
freedom, with a grasp of mind that shows him to be the peer of
any man on this floor, be he who he may, has given the full
strength and full power of that decision of the Supreme Court."
Garfield, Cannon, Frye, Hale, Hawley, Hoar (Geo. F.), Platt,
Dawes, Phelps, Lamar, Beck, Stephens (A. H.), Randall, Mills,
Cox, and Barnum, were among the prominent members of the House at
that time, many of whom afterwards reached the Senate, and
Garfield, the presidency. General Butler was considered one of
the great constitutional lawyers of that period.
The following relative to Senator Bruce and Mr. Langston may
interest you if you have not already heard of the incidents:
It is always customary when a new Senator appears with his
credentials for his colleague to escort him to the
Vice-President's desk to be sworn in. When Senator Bruce
presented himself, his colleague, Senator Alcorn, was not
present. Senator Roscoe Conkling taking in the situation, walked
over to Senator Bruce and escorted him up the aisle and the oath
was administered. For this gracious act Senator Bruce named his
son, recently of Washington, after the distinguished senator from
New York.
As Mr. Venable, the democrat, was given the certificate of
election by the Virginia officials for the Congressional seat,
Mr. Langston made the contest. The Committee on privileges and
elections voted in favor of Mr. Langston. When the time set for
action on the case arrived, the whole democratic membership
withdrew from the House, thinking that they would catch the
Republicans napping and without a quorom, the republican majority
being small. The Republicans, however, got wind of what the
Democrats were doing and had all of their members rounded up.
They not only seated Mr. Langston but the chairman of the
elections committee took advantage of the absence of the
Democrats and called up the case of Miller versus Elliott from
South Carolina and then seated Miller, though the case was not
slated for that time. The feelings of the Democrats can be better
imagined than described when they returned to the House and found
two of their colleagues unseated and two Negro Congressmen seated
in their places. The Democrats never again resorted to such
tactics.
Very respectfully,
HENRY A. WALLACE.