CONCLUSION.
The order for mustering out the remaining volunteer officers was long
anticipated, and anxiously looked for by these officers, and by none
more than by Major Delany, who, as sub-assistant commissioner of the
Bureau distinct of Hilton Head would be affected by this. At last it
was received, as will be seen by the following document. While upon
this subject, a humorous anecdote, bearing on this subject, may be
related.
While awaiting the order, about the middle of December, he visited the
headquarters of the assistant commissioner at Charleston.
On entering the department of the adjutant general, a group of officers
surrounded the desk of the acting adjutant, who, at the time, was
reading out the names of the officers mustered out by special orders,
which had just been received from the war department that morning,
erasing them from the roster suspended on the wall before him, among
which was his own name.
“How is this, major?” asked the chief clerk; “I do not see your name
among them. Do you report regularly?”
“I do; my report for this month was sent on now more than ten days,” he
replied.
“How is it that you are not among these named in the special order just
received?” inquired the acting assistant adjutant general, with much
interest.
“I suppose,” said the major, very quaintly, “that I am in the position
of the old black man, a devoted Second Adventer, during the Millerite
excitement, who, disposing of his earthly effects, betook himself
to a cellar, with simply food and fuel sufficient to sustain him
comfortably, the season being winter. While waiting, a snow storm came
on, the drift completely embanking that side of the street, burying
everything beneath it.
“Thus isolated, and enveloped in darkness for several days, except the
light of his little fire, without the sound of a footstep or voice
above, the old man believed that the final consummation of all things
had taken place, and he was actually left in his tomb.
“Presently the scavengers reached his cellar door, when, first hearing
footsteps, succeeded by scraping and prying, then light ushering in
through the cracks as the snow was removed. Suddenly bursting up the
cellar door, the old man exclaimed, ‘Is de end come?’ Being answered
in the negative, ‘O!’ said he, ‘I thought de end was come, an’ all
you white folks was gone up, an’ forgot dis old black saint.’ Now,”
concluded the major, turning to the assistant adjutant general, “I
suppose de end is come, an’ all you white folks is _gone up_, an’
forgot dis black saint,” amidst a roar of laughter among the officers.
A few days after this an order came from Washington, retaining Brevet
Major General Scott in the service, as assistant commissioner, on the
staff of Major General Canby, commanding the Second Military District,
by whose advice and generous indorsement the retention of Major Delany
was recommended to General Canby, and by which he has been retained in
the service.
Thus, in addition to the established duties of his office, he is now
the disbursing officer of soldiers’ claims for the sub-district of
Hilton Head.
This is another testimony, as exhibited by different commanders, of
the ability and usefulness of this officer in retaining him. But while
fully appreciating these repeated recognitions of his service to the
government by these high officials, giving it the full value of its
civil and political worth, construing it to a desire of recognizing the
true status of the colored race as American citizens by the continuance
of their only representative, as an incumbent and military officer
in this prominent and honorable position of the government, Major
Delany says, “By this change or modification in its jurisdiction the
Bureau loses nothing, but otherwise its status and prestige is thereby
enhanced.
“Previous to this an important difficulty presented itself. A
large force of volunteer officers must be kept up in a time of
peace,--which is contrary to the jurisprudence of all highly civilized
nations,--or the volunteer officers must be mustered out, and thus
leave an important arm of the war department without the necessary
administrative government.
“To impose the duties of the Bureau on the officers of the regular
army, would be to entail duties which they could not care to have upon
them, and, therefore, for the most part, neglect. To employ civilians,
would bring them directly under the military men, wholly ignorant
of the details, import, and meaning of military orders and duties.
To employ those who have been commissioned officers in the service,
competent for the duties, would involve an expense equal, at least, to
that already incurred by the volunteer officers now on duty.
“The only course left the government in carrying out the well-regulated
custom of reducing the army to a true peace basis, by doing away with
an independent volunteer force in time of peace, was to place the
bureau under the regular army.
“This virtually places Major General O. O. Howard on the staff of
General Grant; Brevet Major General R. K. Scott, and all other
assistant commissioners, _de facto_, on the staffs of the major
generals commanding the military districts; brings the entire volunteer
officers, retained in the service, under and subject to, without being
in, the regular army; and cements a perfect harmony between these two
branches of the government which nothing can detract.
“In this stride of statesmanship, will it be presumed that the American
army, or the military branch of the government, has no statesmen as
competent counsellors of the executive?”
HEADQUARTERS SECOND MILITARY DISTRICT,
CHARLESTON, S. C., December 4, 1867.
_General Orders. No. 140._
The following general orders, from the headquarters of the
army, are republished for the information and guidance of all
concerned.
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY, ADJT. GEN. OFFICE,
WASHINGTON, November 26, 1867.
_General Orders. No. 101._
The following orders have been received from the War
Department, and will be duly executed:--
_Extract._
_Par._ III. All volunteer officers now retained in service
will be mustered out, to take effect January 1, 1868, except
the commissioner and the disbursing officers of the Bureau of
Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands.
By command of
General GRANT.
E. D. TOWNSEND, _Asst. Adjt. Gen._
By command of
Brevet Major General ED. R. S. CANBY.
Official.
Louis V. Caziarc,
_Aid-de-Camp, Act’g Asst. Adjt. Gen._
HEADQUARTERS SECOND MILITARY DISTRICT,
CHARLESTON, S. C., December 6, 1867.
_General Orders. No. 145._
The following arrangement of the troops in this district will
be carried into effect with as little delay as possible.
_Extract._
In addition to duties with which they are charged by existing
orders, commanding officers of posts are designated as
sub-assistant commissioners of the Bureau of Refugees,
Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, for the districts embraced
within the territorial limits of their commands, and will
exercise all the functions of officers of that bureau, except
so far as relates to the administration and control of the
funds or property of the bureau.
_Extract._
All officers and agents of the bureau, who may be on duty
within the territorial limits of any post, will report to its
commander, and will be governed by his instructions in all that
relates to the protection of persons and property, under the
laws of the United States, the regulations of the bureau, and
the orders of the district commander. In all that relates to
the details of administration, they will report as heretofore
to the assistant commissioner for the state in which they are
stationed. The assistant commissioners for the States of North
and South Carolina, respectively, will furnish the commanders
of posts with the names and stations of the officers and agents
of the bureau on duty within the limits of their respective
commands, and with a statement of any special duties they may
have been charged with in relation to the protection of person
and property. They will also, by conference or correspondence
with the post commander, determine what officers or agents of
the bureau can be relieved or discharged, and report the same
to district headquarters.
By command of
Brevet Major General ED. R. S. CANBY.
Official.
LOUIS V. CAZIARC,
_Aid-de-Camp, Act’g Asst. Adjt. Gen._
HEADQUARTERS ASST. COMR. BUREAU REFUGEES,
FREEDMEN, AND ABANDONED LANDS, DISTRICT OF S. C.,
CHARLESTON, S. C., December 19, 1867.
Major M. R. DELANY, _Asst. Sub-Asst. Comr._
Major: In accordance with the provisions of general orders No.
145, C. S., Second Military District, I am directed by the
assistant commissioner to inform you that your designation and
limits of your district are as follows:--
You will hereafter be designated as Assistant Sub-Assistant
Commissioner for Hilton Head, Savage, Bull, Dawfuskie,
Pinckney, and Long Pine Islands, and will report to Brevet
Brigadier General H. B. Clitz, port of Charleston, and
sub-assistant commissioner, subject to existing orders and
instructions.
I am, major, very respectfully,
Your most obedient servant,
EDWARD L. DEANE,
_Brevet Major, A. D. C., & A. A. A. Gen._
HEADQUARTERS ASST. COMR. BUREAU REFUGEES,
FREEDMEN, AND ABANDONED LANDS, DIST. OF S. C.,
CHARLESTON, S. C., February 8, 1868.
Major M. R. DELANY, _Acting Sub-Assistant Commissioner_,
_Hilton Head, S. C._
Major: The following copy of indorsement from War Department,
Adjutant General’s Office, dated January 28, 1868, is
respectfully furnished for your information.
Respectfully returned to Major General O. O. Howard,
Commissioner. Major M. R. Delany, 104th United States Colored
Troops, having been reported in your letter of November 30,
1867, as on duty in the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and
Abandoned Lands, as a disbursing officer, was retained in
service under the provisions of General Orders 101, November
26, 1867, from this office.
(Signed) THOMAS M. VINCENT,
_Asst. Adjt. Gen_.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
H. NEIDE,
_Brevet Major, 1st Lieut. 44th Infantry_,
_Act’g Asst. Adjt. Gen_.
With this last order we will bring this volume to a close. We have
endeavored to narrate the career of an individual of our time, living
and still working in our midst, the extent of whose labors, and the
great ability demonstrated in their execution, cannot be thoroughly
understood or felt, without first having known the great struggle and
anxiety entailed in its accomplishment. This we have attempted to give,
but found it no easy task; therefore we have simply narrated the events
of his singularly active life, allowing the reader to deduce his own
comments.
At this writing, Major Delany is still in the service of the
government, as sub-assistant commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau,
while many of the volunteer officers have been mustered out, under
order of the department at Washington.
In his retention, is shown the recognition and the thorough
appreciation of the indefatigable zeal and great ability displayed by
the black officer, especially as in conjunction with his former duties
others, in which greater responsibilities are entailed, are assigned
to him. His efficient labors in the department render him a distinct
character from his surroundings, while his administrative qualities
attract the attention of friends and foes alike, as unprecedented in
the history of his race in this country. While comments may vary, they
unite in saying, “There is still a latent amount of greatness within
the man, which has not yet been called forth.”
To his lofty aspirations, and great originality of thoughts, together
with his real earnestness in everything he undertakes, and his iron
will to pursue to completion, we trace the secret of his success in
this field.
Illustrating in his career entire personal sacrifice for the
accomplishment of a grand purpose, no character has been produced by
our civilization in comparison with which this remarkable man would
be deemed inferior. Men have died for the freedom and elevation of
the race, and thereby have contributed more to advance the cause than
would their living efforts, while others have lived for it, and under
circumstances where death would have been easier. Such describes
Martin Delany. Nature marked him for combat and victory, and not for
martyrdom. His life-long service, from which neither poverty nor
dangers could deter him, his great vitality and energy under all and
every circumstance, which have never abated, proclaim this truth. His
life furnishes a rare enthusiasm for race not expected in the present
state of American society, occasioned by his constant researches into
anything relative to their history. No living man is better able to
write the history of the race, to whom it has been a constant study,
than he; as it is considered by the most earnest laborers in the same
sphere that few, if any, among them, have so entirely consecrated
themselves to the idea of race as his career shows. His religion,
his writings, every step in life, is based upon this idea. His creed
begins and ends with it--that the colored race can only obtain their
true status as men, by relying on their own identity; that they must
prove, by merit, all that white men claim; then color would cease to
be an objection to their progress--that the blacks must take pride in
being black, and show their claims to superior qualities, before the
whites would be willing to concede them equality. This he claims as the
foundation of his manhood. Upon this point Mr. Frederick Douglass once
wittily remarked, “Delany stands so straight that he leans a little
backward.”
Such is the personal history of an individual of the race, whose great
strength of character, amid the multitudinous agencies adverse to his
progress, has triumphantly demonstrated negro capability for greatness
in every sphere wherein he has acted.
The late revolution has resulted in bringing the race to which he
belongs into prominence. They have begun their onward march towards
that higher civilization promised at the close of the war. Let no
unhallowed voice be lifted to stay their progress; then, with all
barriers removed, the glorious destiny promised to them can be
achieved. And then our country, continuing to recognize merit alone
in her children, as shown in the appointment of the black major of
Carolina, will add renewed strength to her greatness. Begirt with
loyal hearts and strong arms, the mission of our revolution shall
embrace centuries in its march, securing the future stability of our
country, and proclaiming with truthfulness the grandeur of republican
institutions to the civilization of Christendom.
APPENDIX.
POLITICAL WRITINGS.
Having given thus far, in a most impartial manner, the services of
Major Delany; endeavoring to concede all that rightfully belongs to
him, without debarring others of their dues; claiming, as we have
in this work, _for him always an advanced position_; to bear out
this statement more fully, we add some selections from his published
political works, which will show that his administration in a military
capacity but reflected the brilliancy kindled about the civilian.
The most remarkable feature of the greater portion of the writings is,
that they constitute the _present essential principles_ which form
the basis of the reconstruction of the South, and ultimately for the
nation at large. These are definitely and significantly expressed in
paragraphs 6th, 7th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 18th, and 22d of the Platform
or Declaration of Sentiments, and also in his paper on the Political
Destiny of the Colored Races, &c.
These are the writings to which reference has been previously made, and
were presented before, and adopted by the Cleveland Convention of 1854,
without modification of any kind.
On the appearance of these, numerous comments were drawn from the
leading daily journals of the country. From the Pittsburg Daily Post,
of October 18, 1854 (a pro-slavery paper), we quote the following:--
“Dr. M. R. Delany, of Pittsburg, was the chairman of the committee
that made this report to the convention. It was, of course, adopted.
If Dr. D. drafted this report, it certainly does him much credit for
learning and ability, and cannot fail to establish for him a reputation
for vigor and brilliancy of imagination never yet surpassed.” Not
being able to continue long in this vein, it concludes: “It is a vast
conception, of impossible birth. The committee seem entirely to have
overlooked the strength of the ‘powers on the earth’ that would oppose
the Africanization of more than half the western hemisphere.”
In their singular adaptability to the extraordinary events now
challenging the highest intelligence of the land for their permanent
adjustment, they will be regarded as reflecting no ordinary credit
on the colored race for one of their number to adduce such thoughts
as are contained in these on National Polity and Individual Rights,
published as they were some thirteen years ago, hence prior to the
present discussions upon the new issues. While the position he claimed
and sentiments expressed are most thoroughly anti-slavery, they are
unlike in their issues, and manner of presenting such, as well as far
in advance of the _then_ most radical, with few noble exceptions, and
_now_ in harmony with the requirements of the times. Then they were
looked upon as extremely impracticable measures and sentiments. Now
they will testify to the fitness of the colored people for the present
right they claim; as these issues, instead of finding them unprepared,
as their political enemies proclaim, it has found theories promulgated
by a black representative, standing in the midst of this mighty
political combat, side by side with the most advanced of his white
brothers on either continent.
Whatever the seeming tenor of the advice and feelings which thrill
through these productions, it should be remembered they were written at
a time when the present state of the country was scarcely expected to
be realized, in our age, even by the radicals; penned within sight of
slave renditions into bondage, when his manhood was humiliated by the
legal ordeal under which the colored people of the United States were
placed by that most infamous of enactments, the Fugitive Slave Law.
After the publication of his paper on the Destiny of the Colored
Race in America,[7] a committee, selected for the purpose, sent a
copy to each member of the Congress, of which Mr. Frank Blair was a
member, he having acknowledged its receipt by letter to Mr. J. M.
Whitfield, one of the committee, and in which he broached the subject
he afterwards made the theme of his lecture which surprised the country
from the boldness of the position taken. By comparing the scheme put
forth during the year 1844-5, in favor of Central and South American
emigration, and the brilliant effort of Mr. Frank P. Blair in its
behalf, including his great lecture before the Boston Lyceum, we
venture to assume that it was suggested by the paper herein presented.
In the recent report of his African explorations, the following curious
document we quote, as among his political works. To the discerning
historical reader it will be read with interest, while its significance
will become in time more appreciable.
_African Commission_.
The president and officers of the General Board of
Commissioners, viz., W. H. Day, A. M., President, Matisen F.
Bailey, Vice-President, George W. Brodie, Secretary, James
Madison Bell, Treasurer, Alfred Whipple, Auditor, Dr. Martin R.
Delany, Special Foreign Secretary, Abram D. Shadd, James Henry
Harris, and Isaac D. Shadd, the executive council in behalf
of the organization for the promotion of the political and
other interests of the colored inhabitants of North America,
particularly the United States and Canada.
To all unto whom these letters may come, greeting: The said
General Board of Commissioners, in executive council assembled,
have this day chosen, and by these presents do hereby appoint
and authorize Dr. Martin Robison Delany, of Chatham County
of Kent, Province of Canada, Chief Commissioner, and Robert
Douglass, Esq., Artist, and Professor Robert Campbell,
Naturalist, both of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, one of the
United States of America, to be Assistant Commissioners; Amos
Aray, Surgeon, and James W. Prinnel, Secretary and Commercial
Reporter, both of Kent County, Canada West, of a scientific
corps, to be known by the name of
_The Niger Valley Exploring Party_.
The object of this expedition is to make a topographical,
geological, and geographical examination of the Valley of the
River Niger, in Africa, and an inquiry into the state and
condition of the people of that valley, and other parts of
Africa, together with such other scientific inquiries as may
by them be deemed expedient, for the purposes of science, and
for general information; and without any reference to, and with
the board being entirely opposed to, any emigration there as
such. Provided, however, that nothing in this instrument be so
construed as to interfere with the right of the commissioners
to negotiate, in their own behalf, or that of any other parties
or organization, for territory.
The Chief Commissioner is hereby authorized to add one or
more competent commissioners to their number, it being agreed
and understood that this organization is, and is to be,
exempted from the pecuniary responsibility of sending out this
expedition.
Dated at the office of the Executive Council, Chatham, County
of Kent, Province of Canada, this thirtieth day of August, in
the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
By the President,
WILLIAM HOWARD DAY.
ISAAC D. SHADD, _Vice-President_.[8]
GEORGE W. BRODIE, _Secretary_.
While the Commission is worthy of a place among his political writings,
the next in order, and of equal importance, furnishing another evidence
of his adaptability to circumstances, the essential characteristic to
his success, as well as that which has always been the secret of the
success of all men in public life, is his treaty made with the king
and chiefs of Abbeokuta, in view of advancing the future prosperity of
his fatherland. We give the treaty, extracted from page 35th of his
“Official Report.”
_The Treaty._
This treaty, made between His Majesty Okukenu, Alake, Somoye,
Ibashorum, Sokenu, Ogubonna, and Atambola, Chiefs, and Balaguns
of Abbeokuta, on the first part, and Martin Robison Delany,
and Robert Campbell, of the Niger Valley Exploring Party,
commissioners from the African race of the United States and
the Canadas, in America, on the second part, covenants:
Art. 1. That the king and chiefs, on their part, agree to
grant and assign unto the said commissioners, on behalf of the
African race in America, the right and privilege of settling,
in common with the Egba people, on any part of the territory
belonging to Abbeokuta not otherwise occupied.
Art. 2. That all matters requiring legal investigation among
settlers be left to themselves, to be disposed of according to
their own custom.
Art. 3. That the commissioners, on their part, also agree that
the settlers shall bring with them, as an equivalent for the
privileges above accorded, intelligence, education, a knowledge
of the arts and sciences, agriculture, and other mechanical and
industrial occupations, which they shall put into immediate
operation, by improving the lands, and in other useful
avocations.
Art. 4. That the laws of the Egba people shall be strictly
respected by the settlers; and, in all matters in which both
parties are concerned, an equal number of commissioners,
mutually agreed upon, shall be appointed, who shall have power
to settle such matters.
As a pledge of our faith, and sincerity of our hearts, we each
of us hereunto affix our hand and seal, this twenty-seventh
day of December, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and
fifty-nine.
His Mark, × OKUKENU, ALAKE,
His Mark, × SOMOYE, IBASHORUM,
His Mark, × SOKENU, BALAGUN,
His Mark, × OGUBONNA, BALAGUN,
His Mark, × ATAMBALA, BALAGUN,
His Mark, × OGUSEYE, ARIABA,
His Mark, × AGTABO, BALAGUN, _O. S. O._
His Mark, × OGUDEMU, AGEOKI,
M. R. DELANY,
ROBERT CAMPBELL.
Witness, SAMUEL CROWTHER, Jun.
Attest, SAMUEL CROWTHER, Sen.
Says the report on the Niger Valley Exploration, “On the next evening,
the 28th, the king, with the executive council of chiefs and elders,
met at the palace in Aka, when the treaty was ratified by a unanimous
approval. Such general satisfaction ran through the council, that
the great chief, his highness Ogubonna, mounting his horse, then at
midnight, hastened to the residence of the surgeon Crowther, aroused
the father, the missionary, and author, and hastily informed him of the
action of the council.”
An event of revenge, from prejudice to his race, was of great personal
loss to himself, occasioned by the burning of Wilberforce College,
the first and only thoroughly literary institution of that capacity
owned and controlled solely by the colored people of this country.
This happened on the memorable night of the 14th of April, 1866; he
having had in the third story of the right wing of the edifice a room
as a depository of valuables, among which were his entire collection
of African curiosities, collected during his tour, together with his
entire European and African correspondence, and that with distinguished
Americans after his return home. In this conflagration it was a loss
entailed to him, never to be remedied, as these were the collections of
twenty years. Besides correspondence, there were manuscripts, by which
we are deprived of some of his finest productions.
The following papers are of a recent date:--
_Reflections on the War._
One important fact developed during this gigantic civil war, and which
could not have escaped the general and mature intelligent observer as a
result of the struggle, and so contrary to concessions under the old
relations of the Union, is, that no great statesmen were produced on
the part of the South; although at the commencement, at the Montgomery
Convention, or Provisional Congress, August, 1861, their independence
was declared, and consequently must have been fully matured, not a
measure was put forth of national import to sustain their cause, except
the issue of the cotton bonds thrown upon the foreign market--a cheat
so consistent with the Mississippi bond repudiation of Mr. Jefferson
Davis, that it is not difficult to determine the source of that
financial scheme, which, of itself, was an ordinary commercial measure,
of every-day transaction, enlarged to meet the occasion of a “national
want.”
Previous to the war, it was generally conceded that by far the ablest
statesmen in the service of the nation came from the South. And
doubtless this may have been so, for a long period of the government,
after the close of the revolutionary struggle; because, the people of
the North, caring for little else than business, of personal interests,
and local legislation, few men could be found among them willing to
devote more than one term in Congress, or the executive departments
of the government; while the policy of the South was to continue the
same men as long as possible in the councils, in consequence of their
domestic relations affording them ample time and leisure in their
absence from home to mature their plans of ascendency.
During the revolutionary period, which may be reckoned from the Albany
Continental Congress, in 1754, to the Peace Congress at Ghent, 1814,
both grand political divisions, north and south of Mason and Dixon’s
line, show with equal brilliancy in the national forum.
After the treaty of peace with Great Britain, gradually the leading
spirits passed away, either by death or withdrawal from public life,
till Clay, Calhoun, Adams, and Benton appeared for many years as the
only dependence of the country in questions and measures of great
national import.
These master spirits continued their career till they, in turn, one by
one, left the stage of action, the last terminating in 1852, by the
death of Mr. Webster.
Of this galaxy, the Hons. John Quincy Adams, of the House of
Representatives, and Henry Clay, of the Senate, were the leaders of
international measures; Senators Daniel Webster and Thomas H. Benton,
those of national import; while Senator John C. Calhoun was especially
confined to that of state rights sovereignty. During the existence of
these, there were other men of note and distinction, all of whom have
left the stage of action. Of the great personages above named, all,
excepting Senator Benton, have held the portfolio of first minister
of state; and it is notorious, that although Senator Calhoun’s was
under President James K. Polk, 1844, a period most auspicious for the
display of statesmanship, as great and vital questions of national
and international polity were prominent before the country and the
world,--such as the extension of territory, and the annexation of
Texas,--not a measure was put forth by Mr. Calhoun to meet the
exigencies of the occasion and the times. Indeed, that senator, outside
of “state sovereignty” and South Carolina, as history bears witness, as
a _statesman_, was a failure.
The social polity of the North being based upon labor, and that of
the South on leisure, depending on slave labor for maintenance, as an
almost natural consequence, the North neglected as much as possible
places of honor in the nation,--the army, and navy,--conceding these,
as a matter of course, in all good faith, to its brethren of the South.
In good faith the concession was certainly made, because the North then
as heartily approved of slavery as the South.
Foreign intervention being permanently settled, and no longer any
dread of a common enemy, the South accepted the indifference of the
North, and commenced preparations for her own independence. This was
probably maturing shortly after the battle of New Orleans (1815), till
the election of James Buchanan, 1856; or, more historically, from the
treaty of Ghent, 1814, to the Ostend Congress, in 1854.
When the civil war commenced, it was alarmingly apparent that the
South had by far the best officers, the North having few trustworthy,
or those of military experience. And while the army was routed, and
the enemy gaining strength at home and abroad, the masterly ability
of statesmanship of the North not only challenged the respect and
admiration of the world by the wisdom of the great executive head of
the government, but intricate questions of the greatest international
policy were raised, met, sustained, and established; military and
financial measures created by the ministers of state, war, and the
treasury, never yet equalled by any nation.
During the time immediately succeeding the revolutionary period,--from
1815 to 1851,--with the exception of representatives from Missouri,
Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware, in the persons of Hons. Thomas
H. Benton, Henry Clay, Reverdy Johnson, and John M. Clayton, every
great measure of national interest was represented by gentlemen of
the North. So completely had the state rights question engrossed the
attention of the South, that nothing could be elicited in the halls of
Congress from that side of the house, of whatever import the question,
but “Old Dominion” and “first families,” “South Carolina and state
rights,” “Georgia and negro slaves,” “Alabama and cotton,” “Louisiana,
slaves, and sugar,” “Mississippi negro traders,” “Arkansas and amen
with abolition,” “Texas and bowie knives.” These appeared to be the
only rejoinders given, and arguments made for many years past, in the
councils of the nation, by representatives from the South.
Absorbed entirely in the one erroneous idea of state sovereignty,
thinking of nothing besides this, neither fearing nor caring for
anything else, then is a degeneracy in statesmanship much to be
wondered at on the part of the South? Certainly not. It is but charity
to the South to admit of finding a solution of their deficiencies in
the statement of these grave and important truths.
Was there any one man or measure, either in or out of the whole
Southern establishment, civil or military, approaching those of the
North? Not one. I am fully aware that “comparisons are odious;” that
these features of observations are “in bad taste,” and that it will be
adjudged ungenerous to make such allusions to our fallen and subjugated
fellow-countrymen. I fully appreciate the extent of the objection; but
when it is remembered that many of this very class of Southerners,--the
old leading politicians are straining their intellects to prove the
inferiority and incapacity of my race to high social and intellectual
attainments,--the objector will, at least, find an explanation, if not
justification, in the strictures.
I admit there are many excellent gentlemen in the South, and many
have, through the press of the country, acknowledged their approval of
the great principles of equality before the law, liberty and justice,
and the natural inalienable rights of all men by birth; but I must be
permitted to place my record, if not measure my steel, against those
who tauntingly dare challenge me. It was the Hon. Daniel Webster, who,
long years ago, on the floor of the United States Senate, on the very
subject of disparagement, told Senator Hayne, of South Carolina, in
reply to his assertion, “The gentleman from Massachusetts has found
_more_ than his match” in debate with Senator Benton,--“Sir, where
there are _blows to be received_, there must be blows given in return.”
_The International Policy of the World towards the African Race._
One of the highest pretensions set up in favor of the enslavement of
the African race is its inferiority. If the Britons, Caledonians,
Hibernians, and others of the Celtic as well as Teuton and pure
Caucasian races had never been enslaved; if Caractacus, the king and
proudest prince the British ever had up to that period, had not been
led in chains, and sold by order of Julius Cæsar, with many other
British slaves, in the public market of Rome; if the British nobles,
long years ago, had not written of their own peasantry, that they were
incapable of elevation; if they had not recorded and passed enactments
against the Scotch and Irish, that they were innately inferior,
and totally insusceptible of instruction and civilization, calling
them “heathen dogs, only fit for slaves of the lowest order;” if a
general system of serfdom, known as the Feudal System, had not existed
generally among the white races for ages through all Europe, before
a black slave was ever known among the whites; if the whites had not
been held in slavery many centuries longer than were the blacks; and
finally, if Russia had not, just within the last three years (1864),
emancipated her forty-two millions of slaves,--ten times more than
the African slaves in the United States, allowing four millions to the
South,--then there would be some semblance of honesty and sincerity in
the continued plea of justice for ages of wrong and crime against an
unoffending, helpless people.
Through all times white slavery had existed among the nations of
Europe, and as civilization advanced, and the lower classes became
more elevated, the difficulty became more apparent in perpetuating
the system. What to do, and how to remedy the evil, was a question of
paramount importance. To suppress the approach of civilization, and
keep down the rising aspirations of the common people, could not be
well determined. The genius of social and political economy were put
to the test to divine the desired end to be attained. Legislative and
royal decrees could not reach it; the march of man and the light of
intellect kept in advance of legal injunctions.
In 624--twelve hundred and forty-three years ago, and twelve hundred
and thirty-nine before the Emancipation Proclamation of President
Lincoln--the Saracens or Arabs gained access to Africa, controlling
the commerce for seven hundred and fifty-eight years, being the only
foreigners accessible to, and holding a friendly intercourse with, the
people.
In the year 1487, Bartholomew Diaz, of Portugal, discovered the Cape of
Good Hope, calling it _Cabo del Tormentoso_--“the Cape of Storms.” On
reporting to his sovereign the discovery, with all of its prospects,
the king cried out, “No, let us not call it ‘Cabo del Tormentoso,’
but rather let us call it _Cabo del Buen Speremza!_--the Cape of
Good Hope!” And it was a good hope to Portugal, because it must be
remembered that access to Africa, by communication with the western
coast, was then to Europeans unknown; the only intercourse being from
the north by the Barbary States, and through the interior by caravans,
all of which purported to reach the eastern part of the continent by
that way.
The year 1482 was an eventful period to the African race, and I here
record, for the first time probably in which it has ever been given
to the world (except the authority herein quoted), the startling
facts that the enslavement of the African race was the result of a
determination on the part of at least four, and probably more, of the
strongest, the most enlightened and polished nations at the time,
to make the African race supplant, by substituting it for European
slavery. These nations were, Spain, England, France, and Portugal.
And I should not feel, whatever I may have effectually done, that my
work had been more than half completed, did I not, as a wronged and
outraged son of Africa, give to the world this crowning act of infamy
against a people, the facts of which have ever been closely concealed,
and even denied, while thousands of the world’s good people have no
knowledge that such facts ever transpired.
The demands for ameliorating the condition of the whites pressed
heavily in all parts of Europe, as the elevated wealthy noble could
not longer bear to see the ignorant poor of his kinsmen degraded. To
longer deny them the right of elevation, was to disparage the genius,
and degrade the whole Caucasian race. To remedy this, a race must be
chosen foreign to their own, and as different as possible in external
characteristics. For this dreadful purpose the African was selected
as the victim of an international conspiracy. A political conspiracy
of malice aforethought, prompted by avarice and the love of lucre.
During the memorable events that thrilled with emotion the communities
of every country in 1862, in the midst of our national struggle,
the Rev. Felix, Archbishop of Orleans, France, in a pastoral, sent
forth to exhort the people of France and the French Catholics of the
United States to support the position taken by President Lincoln, in
pronouncing his malediction against the cause of the South, said, “It
is the teaching of experience that the slavery of the day--the slavery
of the blacks--has an origin and a consequence equally detestable. Its
origin was the TREATY, the ignoble and cruel bargain, condemned by Pius
II. in 1482, by Paul III. in 1557, by Urban VIII. in 1539, by Benedict
XIV. in 1741, by Gregory XVI. in 1839.” His revelation should startle
Christendom, and none would question the historical accuracy of the
facts in the case, when coming from such a trustworthy source as the
reverend and honored Archbishop of Orleans.
Objections were many and serious on the part of the common classes to
the introduction of this new people as a domestic element into European
countries. But notwithstanding this, there would, doubtless, have been
many sent, if a timely relief had not been afforded by the discovery
of America in 1492. So lucrative became this traffic in a foreign
people, running through many years, and engrossed by the most elevated,
as elsewhere referred to, that in 1518, James I. made it the basis
of the revenue, if not the wealth of England. The people of the New
World--Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, and Dutch--made this race
their “hope and expectation.”
Whole fleets of merchantmen, from every nation in Europe, environed
Africa, to subjugate her people. Powerful naval forces were also
brought against her, and national representatives, in the persons of
their emissaries, prowled along and about her entire coast, sowing the
seeds of discord, and a baser corruption among those of the already
corrupted natives, inciting them to war, and the devastation of their
homes.
Every vestige of civilization was driven from the coast, the interior
placed under fearful apprehensions, the entire social system deranged,
the progress of improvement suspended, and permanent establishments
abandoned. With the entire white world against her, is it not clear
why Africa, in the last twelve centuries, has not kept pace with the
civilization of the age? Certainly it is. But there are those who
still affect to doubt the former civilization of Africa, and dispute
that race as the authors of her ancient arts and sciences. Why dispute
it? If the African race were not the authors, what race were? Why are
not the same arts and sciences found in some other portion of the
globe than Africa? Why confined to this quarter of the world? The
identity of one people with another has its strongest evidence in the
characteristics, habits, manners, customs, especially in moral and
religious sentiments, peculiar to themselves, even after all traces by
language are lost.
It is simply ridiculous for ethnologists to claim the few Bebers who
are found in and about Egypt, as the remnants of the ancient Africans,
and erectors of the mighty pyramids, and authors of the hieroglyphics.
The present Bebers of Egypt are none other than mixed bloods of the
ancient Egyptians who once inhabited it,--who were pure blacks,--and
Saracens who had conquered the country by conquest B. C. 146, and
without any prestige, except that inherited from the Ishmaelitish or
Arab side of their ancestry--avarice and treachery. I mean not to be
unkind in stating this, but simply to paint facts in a strong light.
Certainly the general character of this (the Arabian) race of men has
been known through all times. And although they had given the world
in literature the nine numerals in arithmetic, a chirography, and a
religion which necessarily has some beautiful philosophy, yet there is
little comparison in any of these to the literature of ancient Africa.
I believe it is not pretended that the Arabians have any peculiar
order of architecture; and I hope not to be regarded uncharitable if I
suspect the cunning Arab, instead of originating, as having _stolen_
the nine numerals of our common arithmetic from the Alexandrian Museum,
destroyed by them in the memorable conflagration. It was clever in them
to do so, and keep it to themselves; and I shall not raise the voice of
envy against them.
The most striking character of the ancient Africans was their purity
of morals and religion. Their high conception and reverence of Deity
was manifested and acknowledged in everything they did. They are
known in history as having been the most scrupulous of all races,
and conscientious in their dealings. In this I have reference to the
Ethiopians, of whom the inhabitants of Egypt were lineal descendants
by colonization or emigration down the valley of the Nile, and
settlement in the territory at its mouths; being identical in all their
characteristics of a “black skin and woolly hair,” even as described
as late as the time of Herodotus, “the father of history,” the learned
Grecian philosopher who travelled and resided among them during
twenty-five years.
A people or race possessing in a high degree the great principles of
pure ethics and true religion, a just conception of God, necessarily
inherit the essential principles of the highest civilization. And is
it not a known and conceded fact by all who are at all conversant
with the true character of the African, that he excels all other
races in religious sentiments, and adaptation to domestic usages,
wherever found? In this I will not even except the Caucasian race,
because those characteristics in the African are in such striking
contrast to the same in the Caucasian, that they are regarded by him
as exaggerations and extravagances. Indeed such is the susceptibility
and adaptation of the African to the civilization of the times and
places in which he may be found, that the Caucasian, instead of looking
upon it in approved comparison with that which he admires in his own
race, has, by usage of a policy, become accustomed to undervalue it
as a mere “imitation.” Can imitation give intellectual ability for
acquirements? If it enables a parrot or split-tongued crow to gabble
words by imitation of sound without any conception of meaning; if it
enables a monkey or an ourang-outang to “come down from a tree and
tie gloves on others’ hands,” to go back leaving it unable either to
loosen the strings, or climb the tree to escape the artful huntsman,
in imitation of what he did to insnare it; or “thrusting a hand into
a jug of figs, grabbing it full,” and thus holding on to the figs,
screams, endeavoring to take the hand out full, until caught, not
having intellect to let go the figs; does it make him capable of high
intellectual attainment, such as languages, chirography, arithmetic,
philosophy, mathematics, the sciences of war, music, painting,
sculpture, political science, and polite literature?
Let the traducers of the African race, those who affect to believe that
his faculties consist in mere “imitation,” answer this inquiry. Even
in the Southern States, terribly crushed and shattered as has been
for centuries the true African character, these lurking faculties for
the higher attainments rising superior to the fetters which bound the
body of the possessor, would occasionally burst forth like the sudden
illumination of a brilliant meteor, startling the midnight gazer while
all was enshrined in darkness around. Whether in the person of the
distinguished orator and advocate of his race, Frederick Douglass of
Maryland, or an Ellis, the negro blacksmith linguist, or George Madison
Washington of Virginia, or Blind Tom of Alabama, the musician and
pianist, now surprising the world, Elizabeth Greenfield of Mississippi,
the celebrated “Black Susan,”--all slaves when developed,--these great
truths of African susceptibility are incontrovertible. With one more
point this treatise shall have ended. But subsequent to its completion,
and very recently, a high functionary, at the head of one the greatest
nations of modern times, in an elaborate argument on the subject,
having seen fit to make it history, by recording, as part of an
official document, the following declaration, I deem it as treacherous
to the African race, to which I wholly belong, if I did not place as
permanently on record an equally bold and defiant declaration--a proof
to the contrary. Says this sage and statesman,--
“The peculiar qualities which should characterize any people who are
fit to decide upon the management of public affairs for a great state
have seldom been combined. It is the glory of white men to know that
they have had these qualities in sufficient measure to build upon this
continent a great political fabric, and to preserve its stability for
more than ninety years, while in every other part of the world all
similar experiments have failed. But if anything can be proved by known
facts, if all reasoning upon evidence is not abandoned, it must be
acknowledged that, in the progress of nations, negroes have shown less
capacity for government than any other race of people. No independent
government of any form has ever been successful in their hands. On
the contrary, whenever they have been left to their own devices, they
have shown a constant tendency to relapse into barbarism.” Instead of
the assertion, that in the progress of the nations the negro has shown
less capacity for government than any other race of people, that no
independent government of any form has ever been successful in their
hands, I shall commend a reply to this predicate, by the proposition
that the negroes were foremost in the progress of time; first who
developed the highest type of civilization. National civil government
and the philosophy of religion were borrowed by the white races from
the negro. And if the learned jurist will go back to school-boy days,
he will remember what time has evidently caused him to forget.
In the days of Egyptian greatness one dynasty existed, evidently,
for more than one thousand years. This is known to Holy Writ as the
government of the Pharaohs. During the reign of these princes, the
sovereigns repeatedly were chosen from Egyptian and Ethiopian families.
By Ethiopian families, is meant the going out of the kingdom of
Ethiopia to select from a royal family the ruler, just as Great Britain
goes into Germany to select from a family a sovereign for the throne.
Among these mighty princes were Menes, or Misraim, Sesostris, Osiris,
and the Rameses, the last of which was the dynasty name numerically
recorded I., II., III., and so on. Rameses I., the greatest of the
princes, was the god-man, and none other than Jupiter-Ammon. In him
was the beautiful and symbolic idea of the attributes of Deity,--the
Christian’s God,--first developed. The person of the Deity, Rameses
I., was represented as a human being of robust proportions, having
a “bushy, woolly head, with ram’s horns.” His position, seated on a
throne of gold and ivory, ivory base and golden floor; in his left
hand a sceptre, the right grasping a thunderbolt. At his side was the
Phœnix, in its well-known attitude. This last symbolic attribute is
sometimes, indeed generally, spoken of by writers as an “eagle with
extended wings,” which is evidently an error, from all the facts
connected with the god Jupiter, and Rameses II., his successor;
besides, the eagle was not an ideal, symbolic bird of religion in
Africa. It is suggestive of combat and carnality instead of purity,
the successor being styled by the ever-devoted Africans, “Rameses the
Ever-living, Always-living Rameses”--his name occurring twice in the
salutation.
Here, in this ideal symbol of a God, was also the identity of man;
ivory representing durability, gold, purity, the sceptre, authority,
and the thunderbolt, power; the ram’s head, innocence, decision, and
caution against too near approach. In a word, none must presume to
attempt to speak face to face with the Deity, as death would be the
result; as it is a well-known characteristic of a ram, while innocent
as a sheep, he will instantly attack any head, man’s or beast’s, that
approaches his.
Another beautiful symbolic attribute of Jupiter-Ammon,--Rameses
I.,--which afterwards personified Rameses II., was the Phœnix. This
bird, like many ancient images, was allegorical or ideal. It was
described as similar to an eagle, larger, and beautiful; with breast,
wings, and tail of a brilliant gold tint; a crown of solid gold crest
capped its head, the rest of the body covered with green. It never
flew, but always walked with stately step and dignity. There was but
one known to have an existence, and the beginning was never known.
It produced no young, but was itself from the beginning a full-grown
bird. It lived, and lived, and lived on, from generation to generation,
through ages and periods, and periods and ages, till, seeming weary of
life, it built a nest of fagots and brush picked up, which was long
constructing; sat upon it when finished, laid a golden egg in time;
the egg ignited the nest into a burning mass; the bird continuing to
sit, threw up its wings and head in great excitement, and was consumed
in the flames; when in the ashes was left a ball, out of the ball came
forth a worm, from this worm instantly sprang another Phœnix, which
lived on like the first, to transfigurate or reproduce itself again in
time.
There were still other symbolic representatives of Deity among them,
Rameses II. being also called Apis, and represented as an ox or a bull;
while Rameses III. was called Osiris, and represented as a dog--the ox
or bull, as the attribute of patience, endurance, and strength; the
dog, as faithfulness and watchfulness.
Is it not clear that much of the philosophy of our theology was
borrowed from their mythology? Whence the “great white throne” upon
which God sits; the “golden pavement,” the “thunders” of his wrath,
“Behold the Lamb of God,” “Our God is a consuming fire,” “No man can
look upon God and live,” “A self-creating God,” with numerous kindred
quotations which might be made from the Scriptures?
The Africans, as is well known, were great herdsmen; a great part of
their wealth and available currency consisting in their live stock;
every family, however limited their circumstances, having a flock
of sheep or goats, and both more or less; this running through to
the present day, where, in recent travels on that continent, the
writer met, in the first large city, a dairyman, who, every morning,
milked eighty cows, and farther in the interior, towards Soudan,
the dairy which supplied him every morning milked two hundred cows.
And among the higher families, as nobles, chiefs, and princes, from
five to ten thousand head, the property of one person or family,
is commonly met with. Dr. Livingstone speaks of meeting with kings,
even in that least civilized interior region of his explorations, who
possessed as many as forty thousand cattle. These herds are watched
by faithful attendants,--men when large, or women when small, with
the indispensable shepherd dog, which is generally black. In speaking
of the riches of Job, the man of Uz, the Scriptures tell us that his
cattle were on a “thousand hills.”
Can it not be conceived that the God who was thus bountiful in
bestowing such wealth might be symbolized by the property itself and
the means of its protection? Hence Jupiter Ammon or Rameses I., as a
ram or sheep; Sesostris, or Rameses II., as a bull or ox--Apis; Osiris
or Rameses III. as dog or jackal.
There was also another beautiful symbolic personification in
this--three persons in one. For it is a striking and remarkable fact,
as must be noticed by all antiquarians, that these three persons
inseparably appear, both by inscription and in statuary--Rameses,
Sesostris, Osiris--sheep, ox, dog. Here are innocence, patience, faith,
and charity or love, as none so loving as a dog. And how typical of the
true African character!
It was shown that the authors of this beautiful and pure religious
doctrine were black. This will not be disputed, when it is remembered
that Moses took one of the daughters of Jethro, prince and priest
of Midian, to wife, and the Scriptures inform us that she was an
“Ethiopian woman;” Aaron and Miriam, the brother and sister of Moses,
entering into strife with him about it. Not, as it is concluded by
modern civilization, because she was black, but because she was
identical with their oppressors and recent masters the objection was
made.
It is very evident that the highest conception of the Jewish religion
is that which was borrowed from Africa during the Israelitish bondage
in Egypt, transmitted through them to the present, and developed in the
metaphysical theology of the age.
And it will not do to call this “mummery,” since later, in June, 1867,
the President of the United States took part in the consecration of
a hall, erected in part to the perpetuation of this African symbolic
philosophy and religion.
The capital city of this great people in Africa was Thebais, commonly
called Thebes, supposed to contain two millions of inhabitants,
surrounded by a wall with one hundred gates, twenty-five at each point
of the compass. On the occasion of his Asiatic conquest, Sesostris, or
Rameses II., went out of the city with ten thousand infantry and two
hundred chariots, with charioteers armed for war, from each gate at one
time, having an aggregate of one million two hundred thousand warriors.
The conquest of this proud and mighty prince was carried to the banks
of the River Indus, conquering every nation as he passed; where he set
his memorable pillars, with the peculiar inscription, “Sesostris, the
king of kings, has conquered the world to the banks of the Indus;” when
he evacuated the country, and returned to his own, having vindicated
the prestige and dignity of his name.
Who were the builders of the everlasting pyramids, catacombs, and
sculptors of the sphinxes? Were they Europeans or Caucasians, Asiatics
or Mongolians? Will it be at once conceded that the authors of the
symbolic mythology and hieroglyphic science are identical? Upon this
point there is but one opinion. The inventors or authors of the one
were the builders or architects of the other.
Among what race of men, and what country of the globe, do we find
traces of these singular productions, but the African and Africa? None
whatever. It is in Africa the pyramids, sphinxes, and catacombs are
found; here the hieroglyphics still remain. Among the living Africans
traces of their beautiful philosophy and symbolic mythology still
exist. In the interior their architecture and hieroglyphics are still
the subjects of their art. Through all time the arts of a people have
been among the clearest evidences of identity.
Asia has her several peculiar orders of architecture, the Chinese and
Japan being identical; that among the Hindoos the type of the others.
Europe has her Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite, with
Gothic, and other modifications of modern orders.
If the originators and builders of the pyramids and sphinxes had been
Asiatics, is it not certain that the same architecture would have been
found in Asia? of Europeans, in Europe? There is nothing more certain
than it would; and the entire absence of all traces of the purely
African architecture, arts, and symbolic religion and mythology among
other races and in other countries than the Africans and Africa, makes
it simply preposterous for the white race to claim these as productions
of their own.
Would the Asiatic or the European, who had erected the architectural
monuments in Africa, have lost their arts? Would they not have
originated another as they returned to their original homes? Do the
fixed, especially original, arts of a people leave them simply by a
change of countries? Certainly not; as among the greatest advantages
to be gained by emigration is the arts that are taken by the people to
a country. And had the architectures of Africa been an importation,
originated by or among any other people than themselves, is it not one
of the most striking known to history by ages of experience, that it
would have been found in some other country among the descendants of
the originators and authors, and not been found in Africa alone, and
peculiar to the African race? Were they Persians who had succeeded by
conquest in Africa? Were they Greeks under Alexander? Were they Greeks
and Romans who made their advent into Egypt with Antony? or those who
fled in dismay under Pompey, after the famous defeat of Pharsalia?
or Jews under tetrarch governments? Certainly not; as all of them,
from the Persian to the Jewish advent, found these arts and sciences
there. And is it not known to history that Egypt was the “cradle of the
earliest civilization,” propagating the arts and sciences, when the
Grecians were an uncivilized people, covering their persons with skins
and clothing, anterior to the existence of the she-wolf with Romulus
the founder of Rome?
On the invasion of the Saracens, A. C. 146 years, the African library,
known as the “Alexandrian Museum,” was known to contain in manuscript
seven hundred thousand volumes. The secretiveness of the Africans was a
matter of history for ages known to the world, their arts and sciences
being held as sacred, and propagated with the greatest caution. The
kings and priests were the first recipients; the nobles and gentlemen
the other. All Egypt and Ethiopia regarded this library as the “hope
and expectation” of their countries.
The value of the collection will be estimated by remembrance of its age
and manner of obtaining, printing then being unknown to the world. The
age of the library, from its first collections, was coequal with the
first dawn of science among them.
And had this immense fountain of knowledge been transmitted to
posterity, the African would have had a history and a name. And I
repeat, with emphasis, that the loss of the African library was a
catastrophe unequalled in the age of the world, as bearing on the
destiny of a people and a race.
But the “Museum” was made the centre of attraction; the Saracen
invaders surrounded the stupendous edifice; orders were given that not
a relic be preserved; the flambeau was the weapon of attack; assault
and fire was the command,--when the accumulated literature, art and
science, of four thousand years’ collection, sent fire and smoke
towards the heavens, more destructive in its consequences than the
world had ever before witnessed! The African library, the depository
of the earliest germs of social, civil, political, and national
progress, the concentrated wisdom of ages, stood in flames! Fourteen
days burning, the building in ruins, and the light of science and
civilization, for generations, was extinguished, and Africa became a
prey to avarice, imposture, and oppression!
So enlightened, polished, and humane were this race, that after the
birth of Jesus, subsequent to the downfall of Egypt by the Saracens,
the “warning of the Lord to Joseph” was to take the young child
and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until they
are all dead who seek the child’s life. Nor can it be denied that
the African race were that which the “Spirit of the Lord” meant,
because, notwithstanding Saracen subjugation in Egypt, the African
polity, civilization, and humanity still prevailed. Besides, it is a
historically known fact that Greeks and Jews were with the Romans in
government and sentiments against this Messiah, the promised king of
the Jews; all conspiring for his deposition in the event of his coming.
It will also be remembered that after the crucifixion and ascension,
that Africa was the only country which held prestige enough to send a
national representative to “Jerusalem to worship” under the Christian
doctrine, as propagated by the scattered and terror-stricken apostles;
the Ethiopian eunuch, a man of great authority, and chief lord of her
majesty, Queen Candace’s, royal treasury.
One word more, and I close a review already too elaborate; but driven
by necessity to the defence of my race, duty compelled me to the point
where I cease. Would any other race than the African, in the symbolical
statues of the sphinxes, have placed the great head of a _negro woman_,
on the majestic body of a lion, as an ideal representation of their
genius?
If it be the “glory of the white race to know that they have had these
qualifications in sufficient measure to build upon this continent a
great political fabric,” it is also the glory of the black race to
know that they have had these qualities in sufficient measure to build
a great political fabric long before the whites, imparting to them
the first germs of civilization, and enlightening the world by their
wisdom. And the most momentous, extraordinary international conspiracy
against the African race, which this memento commenced to expose, has
never been by convention annulled nor abrogated, and, therefore, still
stands optional with either party to continue or withdraw; it is fondly
and confidently hoped will not be encouraged nor induced to continue
by an equally extraordinary, if not momentous, official denunciation
against that race, from the executive of one of the most powerful
nations existing on this globe.
And in behalf of my race, once proud, polished, and elevated,--at the
feet of whose philosophers the learned and eminent of the world sought
wisdom, as did “Herodotus, the father of history,” and others,--may I
fondly hope that another generation will not pass away till Africa,
in and by her own legitimate children, gives evidence of a national
regeneration, breathing forth with fervid and holy aspirations in the
religious sentiments of her native heart and beautiful words of one
of her own native languages: _Bi-Olorum Pellu_--“the Lord has been
merciful to us.”
And in behalf of my emancipated brethren in America, may the blessings
of that God, whose signal promise must and will be fulfilled, despite
political official anathema, rest upon the devoted head and in the holy
heart of the most eminent prelate, Father Felix, Archbishop of Orleans
in France.
_Political Destiny of the Colored Race on the American Continent._
_To the Colored Inhabitants of the United States_:--
Fellow-Countrymen: The duty assigned us is an important one,
comprehending all that pertains to our destiny and that of our
posterity, present and prospectively. And while it must be admitted
that the subject is one of the greatest magnitude, requiring all that
talents, prudence, and wisdom might adduce, and while it would be folly
to pretend to give you the combined result of these three agencies, we
shall satisfy ourselves with doing our duty to the best of our ability,
and that in the plainest, most simple, and comprehensive manner.
Our object, then, shall be to place before you our true position in
this country (the United States), the improbability of realizing our
desires, and the sure, practicable, and infallible remedy for the evils
we now endure.
We have not addressed you as _citizens_,--a term desired and ever
cherished by us,--because such you have never been. We have not
addressed you as _freemen_, because such privileges have never been
enjoyed by any colored man in the United States. Why, then, should
we flatter your credulity, by inducing you to believe that which
neither has now, nor never before had, an existence? Our oppressors
are ever gratified at our manifest satisfaction, especially when that
satisfaction is founded upon false premises; an assumption on our
part of the enjoyment of rights and privileges which never have been
conceded, and which, according to the present system of the United
States policy, we never can enjoy.
The _political policy_ of this country was solely borrowed from, and
shaped and modelled after, that of Rome. This was strikingly the case
in the establishment of immunities, and the application of terms in
their civil and legal regulations.
The term _citizen_, politically considered, is derived from the
Roman definition, which was never applied in any other sense--_cives
ingenui_; which meant, one exempt from restraint of any kind. (_Cives_,
a citizen; one who might enjoy the highest honors in his own free
town,--the town in which he lived,--and in the country or commonwealth;
and _ingenui_, freeborn--of GOOD EXTRACTION.) All who were deprived
of citizenship--that is, the right of enjoying positions of honor and
trust--were termed _hostes_ and _peregrini_; which are public and
private enemies, and foreigners, or aliens to the country. (_Hostis_,
a public, and sometimes private, enemy; and _peregrinus_, an alien,
stranger, or foreigner.)
The Romans, from a national pride, to distinguish their inhabitants
from those of other countries, termed them all “citizens,” but,
consequently, were under the necessity of specifying four classes of
citizens: none but the _cives ingenui_ being unrestricted in their
privileges. There was one class, called the _jus quiritium_, or the
wailing or _supplicating_ citizen; that is, one who was continually
_moaning_, _complaining_, or _crying for aid or succor_. This class
might also include within themselves the _jus suffragii_, who had the
privilege of _voting_, but no other privilege. They could vote for one
of their superiors--the _cives ingenui_--but not for themselves.
Such, then, is the condition, precisely, of the black and colored
inhabitants of the United States; in some of the states they answering
to the latter class, having the privilege of _voting_, to elevate their
superiors to positions to which they need never dare aspire or even
hope to attain.
There has, of late years, been a false impression obtained, that the
privilege of _voting_ constitutes, or necessarily embodies, the _rights
of citizenship_. A more radical error never obtained favor among an
oppressed people. Suffrage is an ambiguous term, which admits of
several definitions. But according to strict political construction,
means simply “a vote, voice, approbation.” Here, then, you have the
whole import of the term _suffrage_. To have the “right of suffrage,”
as we rather proudly term it, is simply to have the _privilege_--there
is no _right_ about it--of giving our _approbation_ to that which our
_rulers may do_, without the privilege, on our part, of doing the
same thing. Where such privileges are granted--privileges which are
now exercised in but few of the states by colored men--we have but
the privilege granted of saying, in common with others, who shall,
for the time being, exercise _rights_, which, in him, are conceded to
be _inherent_ and _inviolate_: like the indented apprentice, who is
summoned to give his approbation to an act which would be fully binding
without his concurrence. Where there is no _acknowledged sovereignty_,
there can be no binding power; hence, the suffrage of the black man,
independently of the white, would be in this country unavailable.
Much might be adduced on this point to prove the insignificance of
the black man, politically considered, in this country, but we deem
it wholly unnecessary at present, and consequently proceed at once to
consider another feature of this important subject.
Let it then be understood, as a great principle of political economy,
that no people can be free who themselves do not constitute an
essential part of the _ruling element_ of the country in which they
live. Whether this element be founded upon a true or false, a just or
an unjust basis, this position in community is necessary to personal
safety. The liberty of no man is secure who controls not his own
political destiny. What is true of an individual is true of a family,
and that which is true of a family is also true concerning a whole
people. To suppose otherwise, is that delusion which at once induces
its victim, through a period of long suffering, patiently to submit
to every species of wrong; trusting against probability, and hoping
against all reasonable grounds of expectation, for the granting of
privileges and enjoyment of rights which never will be attained. This
delusion reveals the true secret of the power which holds in peaceable
subjection all the oppressed in every part of the world.
A people, to be free, must necessarily be _their own rulers_; that
is, _each individual_ must, in himself, embody the _essential
ingredient_--so to speak--of the _sovereign principle_ which composes
the _true basis_ of his liberty. This principle, when not exercised
by himself, may, at his pleasure, be delegated to another--his true
representative.
Said a great French writer, “A free agent, in a free government,
should be his own governor;” that is, he must possess within himself
the _acknowledged right to govern_: this constitutes him a _governor_,
though he may delegate to another the power to govern himself.
No one, then, can delegate to another a power he never possessed; that
is, he cannot _give an agency_ in that which he never had a right.
Consequently, the colored man in the United States, being deprived of
the right of inherent sovereignty, cannot _confer_ a franchise, because
he possesses none to confer. Therefore, where there is no franchise,
there can neither be _freedom_ nor _safety_ for the disfranchised. And
it is a futile hope to suppose that the agent of another’s concerns
will take a proper interest in the affairs of those to whom he is under
no obligations. Having no favors to ask or expect, he therefore has
none to lose.
In other periods and parts of the world, as in Europe and Asia, the
people being of one common, direct origin of race, though established
on the presumption of difference by birth, or what was termed _blood_,
yet the distinction between the superior classes and common people
could only be marked by the difference in the dress and education
of the two classes. To effect this, the interposition of government
was necessary; consequently the costume and education of the people
became a subject of legal restriction, guarding carefully against the
privileges of the common people.
In Rome the patrician and plebeian were orders in the ranks of her
people--all of whom were termed citizens (_cives_)--recognized by the
laws of the country; their dress and education being determined by
law, the better to fix the distinction. In different parts of Europe,
at the present day, if not the same, the distinction among the people
is similar, only on a modified, and in some kingdoms, probably more
tolerant or deceptive policy.
In the United States our degradation being once--as it has in a hundred
instances been done--legally determined, our color is sufficient,
independently of costume, education, or other distinguishing marks, to
keep up that distinction.
In Europe when an inferior is elevated to the rank of equality with the
superior class, the law first comes to his aid, which, in its decrees,
entirely destroys his identity as an inferior, leaving no trace of his
former condition visible.
In the United States, among the whites, their color is made, by law and
custom, the mark of distinction and superiority; while the color of the
blacks is a badge of degradation, acknowledged by statute, organic law,
and the common consent of the people.
With this view of the case,--which we hold to be correct,--to elevate
to equality the degraded subject of law and custom, it can only be
done, as in Europe, by an entire destruction of the identity of the
former condition of the applicant. Even were this desirable, which
we by no means admit, with the deep-seated prejudices engendered by
oppression, with which we have to contend, ages incalculable might
reasonably be expected to roll around before this could honorably be
accomplished; otherwise, we should encourage, and at once commence,
an indiscriminate concubinage and immoral commerce of our mothers,
sisters, wives, and daughters, revolting to think of, and a physical
curse to humanity.
If this state of things be to succeed, then, as in Egypt, under the
dread of the inscrutable approach of the destroying angel, to appease
the hatred of our oppressors, as a license to the passions of every
white, let the lintel of each door of every black man be stained with
the blood of virgin purity and unsullied matron fidelity. Let it be
written along the cornice in capitals, “The _will_ of the white man
is the rule of my household.” Remove the protection to our chambers
and nurseries, that the places once sacred may henceforth become the
unrestrained resort of the vagrant and rabble, always provided that the
licensed commissioner of lust shall wear the indisputable impress of a
_white_ skin.
But we have fully discovered and comprehended the great political
disease with which we are affected, the cause of its origin and
continuance; and what is now left for us to do is to discover and
apply a sovereign remedy, a healing balm to a sorely diseased body--a
wrecked but not entirely shattered system. We propose for this disease
a remedy. That remedy is emigration. This emigration should be well
advised, and like remedies applied to remove the disease from the
physical system of man, skilfully and carefully applied, within the
proper time, directed to operate on that part of the system whose
greatest tendency shall be to benefit the whole.
Several geographical localities have been named, among which rank the
Canadas. These we do not object to as places of temporary relief,
especially to the fleeing fugitive,--which, like a palliative, soothes,
for the time being, the misery,--but cannot commend them as permanent
places upon which to fix our destiny, and that of our children, who
shall come after us. But in this connection we would most earnestly
recommend to the colored people of the United States generally, to
secure, by purchase, all of the land they possibly can while selling at
low rates, under the British people and government; as that time may
come, when, like the lands in the United States territories generally,
if not as in Oregon and some other territories and states, they may be
prevented entirely from settling or purchasing them,--the preference
being given to the white applicant.
And here we would not deceive you by disguising the facts that,
according to political tendency, the Canadas, as all British America,
at no very distant day, are destined to come into the United States.
And were this not the case, the odds are against us, because the
ruling element there, as in the United States, is, and ever must be,
white; the population now standing, in all British America, two and a
half millions of whites to but forty thousand of the black race, or
sixty-one and a fraction whites to one black!--the difference being
eleven times greater than in the United States,--so that colored
people might never hope for anything more than to exist politically by
mere sufferance; occupying a secondary position to the whites of the
Canadas. The Yankees from this side of the lakes are fast settling in
the Canadas, infusing, with industrious success, all the malignity and
negro-hate inseparable from their very being, as Christian democrats
and American advocates of equality.
Then, to be successful, our attention must be turned in a direction
towards those places where the black and colored man comprise, by
population, and constitute by necessity of numbers, the _ruling
element_ of the body politic; and where, when occasion shall require
it, the issue can be made and maintained on this basis; where our
political enclosure and national edifice can be reared, established,
walled, and proudly defended on this great elementary principle of
original identity. Upon this solid foundation rests the fabric of
every substantial political structure in the world, which cannot exist
without it; and so soon as a people or nation lose their original
identity, just so soon must that nation or people become extinct.
Powerful though they may have been, they must fall. Because the nucleus
which heretofore held them together, becoming extinct, there being no
longer a centre of attraction, or basis for a union of the parts, a
dissolution must as naturally ensue as the result of the neutrality of
the basis of adhesion among the particles of matter.
This is the secret of the eventful downfall of Egypt, Carthage, Rome,
and the former Grecian states, once so powerful--a loss of original
identity; and with it, a loss of interest in maintaining their
fundamental principles of nationality.
This, also, is the great secret of the present strength of Great
Britain, Russia, the United States, and Turkey; and the endurance of
the French nation, whatever its strength and power, is attributable
only to their identity as Frenchmen.
And doubtless the downfall of Hungary, brave and noble as may be her
people, is mainly to be attributed to the want of identity of origin,
and, consequently, a union of interests and purpose. This fact it
might not have been expected would be admitted by the great Sclave in
his thrilling pleas for the restoration of Hungary, when asking aid,
both national and individual, to enable him to throw off the ponderous
weight placed upon their shoulders by the House of Hapsburg.
Hungary consisted of three distinct “races”--as they called
themselves--of people, all priding in, and claiming rights based
on, their originality,--the Magyars, Celts, and Sclaves. On the
encroachment of Austria, each one of these races, declaring for
nationality, rose up against the House of Hapsburg, claiming the
right of self-government, premised on their origin. Between the three
a compromise was effected; the Magyars, being the majority, claimed
the precedence. They made an effort, but for the want of a unity of
interests--an identity of origin--the noble Hungarians failed. All know
the result.
Nor is this the only important consideration. Were we content to remain
as we are, sparsely interspersed among our white fellow-countrymen, we
never might be expected to equal them in any honorable or respectable
competition for a livelihood. For the reason that, according to the
customs and policy of the country, we for ages would be kept in a
secondary position, every situation of respectability, honor, profit,
or trust, either as mechanics, clerks, teachers, jurors, councilmen, or
legislators, being filled by white men, consequently our energies must
become paralyzed or enervated for the want of proper encouragement.
This example upon our children, and the colored people generally, is
pernicious and degrading in the extreme. And how could it otherwise be,
when they see every place of respectability filled and occupied by the
whites, they pandering to their vanity, and existing among them merely
as a thing of conveniency?
Our friends in this and other countries, anxious for our elevation,
have for years been erroneously urging us to lose our identity as
a distinct race, declaring that we were the same as other people;
while at the very same time their own representative was traversing
the world, and propagating the doctrine in favor of a _universal
Anglo-Saxon predominance_. The “universal brotherhood,” so ably and
eloquently advocated by that Polyglot Christian Apostle[9] of this
doctrine, had established as its basis a universal acknowledgment of
the Anglo-Saxon rule.
The truth is, we are not identical with the Anglo-Saxon, or any other
race of the Caucasian or pure white type of the human family, and the
sooner we know and acknowledge this truth the better for ourselves and
posterity.
The English, French, Irish, German, Italian, Turk, Persian, Greek, Jew,
and all other races, have their native or inherent peculiarities, and
why not our race? We are not willing, therefore, at all times and under
all circumstances to be moulded into various shapes of eccentricity, to
suit the caprices and conveniences of every kind of people. We are not
more suitable to everybody than everybody is suitable to us; therefore,
no more like other people than others are like us.
We have, then, inherent traits, attributes, so to speak, and native
characteristics, peculiar to our race, whether pure or mixed blood; and
all that is required of us is to cultivate these, and develop them in
their purity, to make them desirable and emulated by the rest of the
world.
That the colored races have the highest traits of civilization, will
not be disputed. They are civil, peaceable, and religious to a fault.
In mathematics, sculpture and architecture, as arts and sciences,
commerce and internal improvements as enterprises, the white race may
probably excel; but in languages, oratory, poetry, music, and painting,
as arts and sciences, and in ethics, metaphysics, theology, and legal
jurisprudence,--in plain language, in the true principles of morals,
correctness of thought, religion, and law or civil government, there is
no doubt but the black race will yet instruct the world.
It would be duplicity longer to disguise the fact that the great issue,
sooner or later, upon which must be disputed the world’s destiny, will
be a question of black and white, and every individual will be called
upon for his identity with one or the other. The blacks and colored
races are four sixths of all the population of the world; and these
people are fast tending to a common cause with each other. The white
races are but one third of the population of the globe,--or one of
them to two of us,--and it cannot much longer continue that two thirds
will passively submit to the universal domination of this one third.
And it is notorious that the only progress made in territorial domain,
in the last three centuries, by the whites, has been a usurpation and
encroachment on the rights and native soil of some of the colored races.
The East Indies, Java, Sumatra, the Azores, Madeira, Canary, and Cape
Verde Islands; Socotra, Guardifui, and the Isle of France; Algiers,
Tunis, Tripoli, Barca, and Egypt in the North, Sierra Leone in the
West, and Cape Colony in the South of Africa; besides many other
islands and possessions not herein named; Australia, the Ladrone
Islands, together with many others of Oceanica; the seizure and
appropriation of a great portion of the Western Continent, with all its
islands, were so many encroachments of the whites upon the rights of
the colored races. Nor are they yet content, but, intoxicated with the
success of their career, the Sandwich Islands are now marked out as the
next booty to be seized in the ravages of their exterminating crusade.
We regret the necessity of stating the fact, but duty compels us to the
task, that, for more than two thousand years, the determined aim of
the whites has been to crush the colored races wherever found. With a
determined will they have sought and pursued them in every quarter of
the globe. The Anglo-Saxon has taken the lead in this work of universal
subjugation. But the Anglo-American stands preëminent for deeds of
injustice and acts of oppression, unparalleled, perhaps, in the annals
of modern history.
We admit the existence of great and good people in America, England,
France, and the rest of Europe, who desire a unity of interests among
the whole human family, of whatever origin or race.
But it is neither the moralist, Christian, nor philanthropist whom we
now have to meet and combat, but the politician, the civil engineer,
and skilful economist, who direct and control the machinery which moves
forward, with mighty impulse, the nations and powers of the earth.
We must, therefore, if possible, meet them on vantage ground, or, at
least, with adequate means for the conflict.
Should we encounter an enemy with artillery, a prayer will not stay the
cannon shot, neither will the kind words nor smiles of philanthropy
shield his spear from piercing us through the heart. We must meet
mankind, then, as they meet us--prepared for the worst, though we may
hope for the best. Our submission does not gain for us an increase
of friends nor respectability, as the white race will only respect
those who oppose their usurpation, and acknowledge as equals those who
will not submit to their oppression. This may be no new discovery
in political economy, but it certainly is a subject worthy the
consideration of the black race.
After a due consideration of these facts, as herein recounted, shall we
stand still and continue inactive--the passive observers of the great
events of the times and age in which we live; submitting indifferently
to the usurpation by the white race of every right belonging to the
blacks? Shall the last vestige of an opportunity, outside of the
continent of Africa, for the national development of our race, be
permitted, in consequence of our slothfulness, to elude our grasp, and
fall into the possession of the whites? This, may Heaven forbid. May
the sturdy, intelligent Africo-American sons of the Western Continent
forbid.