In 1877 I was appointed by the President Register of the United States
Land Office for the Little Rock District of Arkansas. The State was
blessed with a valuable patrimony, by having at the time of its
admission into the Union an extensive area of agricultural, besides
thousands of acres of swamp, school and other lands, under State control
and disposition. The United States Government had reserved many millions
of acres, which under its homestead law became available for applicants
for 40, 80, or 160 acres. No economy of the Government has been more
fruitful in substantial blessing upon the industrious poor than throwing
open these lands for entrance and ownership of homes by the payment of a
nominal fee for recording and proof of actual settlement thereon.
The renowned and lamented Robert J. Ingersoll, once, while extolling the
benignity and patriotic effect of the homestead law, said: "Who do you
suppose would take up arms to defend a boarding house?" The opportunity
to enjoy the ownership of a home strongly appeals, not alone to our
avarice, but to the instincts of our nature. For here is located the
citadel of our hopes and fears, our joys and griefs; here congregated
are ties the most sacred, and a love devoted. It is the ever-burning
light, the steady heat-giving impulse, and inspiration to deeds of
domestic utility or of noble daring. For its protection the heart leaps
and the arm strikes. Hence, for domestic felicity, or national autonomy,
the home is an experience, and for liberty a conservator. Having these
convictions during my 12 years' service in the Land Office as Register
and afterwards as Receiver of Public Moneys, I was earnest in my
endeavor to have the poor of all classes enter these lands. On the
political stump at every election, while having as my mission the
political ascendancy of my party, I always felt it a duty to dwell
impressively upon that theme. Upon asking all those living on their own
lands to hold up their hands, the gleam of pride on the countenances of
many of my colored auditors as, standing tiptoe, with hands at arms'
length, was shared by me, and a stimulus to the luke-warm, for on
subsequent visits I would find an increase of holdings.
For the Negro ownership of land and home is not only an important
factor, in his domestic life, for as taxpayer, there is a mutuality of
interest between himself and other members of the body politic, business
and trade seek him, it impels reverence for the law, and protection of
the public peace. His own liability to outrage becomes small. His
character for credit increases in the ratio of his holdings, and while
manhood suffrage is the professed but often disavowed legacy for all
born beneath the flag, his rights of citizenship are more often
accorded.
While in the Land Service of the United States there were many examples
of heroic conduct by colored settlers worthy of the highest praise. Many
of them, emigrants from other Southern States, seeking better
conditions, and arriving with barely sufficient to pay entrance fee, and
nothing to sustain them in their fight with nature to clear their
heavily-wooded land and fit it for cultivation. Hiring to others for
brief spells, as necessity compelled them, to obtain small stocks of
food and tools, five years after entrance, when they proved up their
holdings and got their deeds, found them in comfortable log or frame
houses of two or more rooms; sheds, with a cow, calves, swine, and
poultry, and ten or more acres under cultivation, according to the
number and availability of labor in their families. And, best of all,
better than the mere knowledge of success, themselves crowned with that
pride of great achievement ever and only the result of rigid self-denial
and incessant toil.
In the National Republican Convention held at Chicago, June, 1880, was a
contest that will be ever memorable as pertaining to a third term for
the Presidency.
Landing at San Francisco, September, 1879, from his tour of two years
around the world, and the honored guest of the crowned heads of Europe,
General Grant's travel through the States was a continued ovation. On
his arrival at Little Rock, Ark., citizens from all over the State
hastened to do him honor, culminating with a banquet at the Capitol
Hotel. The gathering was democratic in the best sense of that word,
political lines were erased, Republicans and Democrats vieing with each
other in giving the distinguished man a fitting reception. Nor were
social lines adhered to, the writer being a guest and responding to the
toast "The Possibilities of American Citizenship."
At the Arkansas Republican State Convention in 1880 I was elected a
delegate to the National Convention of June 2 of that year. As a memento
I highly prize my bronze medal proclaiming me as one of the historic
"306" that never surrendered--compact and erect, "with every gun shotted
and every banner flying," went down with General Grant in an
unsuccessful effort to nominate him for a third term. It was there that
Roscoe Conkling made the nominating speech in behalf of the General that
will live in history, stirring the hearts of the immense audience to a
climax of patriotic fervor. When he said, "Should you ask from whence he
comes, the answer it shall be, He comes from Appomattox and the famous
apple tree."
The fiat of the Convention was an illustration of the ephemeral
character of cotemporary popular acclaim. Ambitious rivalry, the
anticipations of envy, the bitterness of disappointed office seekers
during two former Administrations, the honest belief of the timid that a
third term for one soever trustworthy presaged and paved the way to an
imperial monarchy; the mistakes unavoidable from misplaced confidence,
happening in the career of all men and inseparable in the administration
of government--all these elements, although incongruous in their nature
and make-up, when they conspire are a formidable factor, and as such
accomplished his defeat. Though dead, Ulysses Grant still lives on; the
attributes of his personal nobility as a man, his patriotism as a
citizen of the Republic, his ability and clear perspective as a
statesman, his genius as a warrior, his magnanimity and kindness to a
chivalrous, heroic but fallen foe, will ever typify his greatness in
civic virtues and valiant deeds.
The manner of General Grant's defeat was peculiar. The name of James A.
Garfield, the successful nominee, and in political parlance the "dark
horse" (undoubtedly foreplanned but kept in the shade), was suddenly
sprung upon the Convention and amid a whirlwind of excitement quickly
received adherents from the opposition which increased in volume at each
successive balloting, until the climax was reached that gave General
Garfield the coveted prize. For some time there was much bitterness,
and interchange of compliments more emphatic than polite. Within the
party charges of infidelity to promises were rife. But the second sober
thought of a wise conservatism, which is ever evidence and measure of a
people's civilization, tempered strife and assuaged the pangs of
disappointment. He was handsomely supported and elected, and on the 4th
of March, 1881, was inaugurated as President, amid acclaim, with promise
of a successful Administration. But upon what a slender thread do human
plans rely! Scarcely had five months elapsed when President Garfield was
assassinated by Charles Guiteau, a man of no repute, and emblems of
sorrow drooped throughout the nation. This national calamity
necessitated the second inauguration of a President during the year
1881. The then Vice-President, Chester A. Arthur, was duly installed
September 30 of that year. His execution of the duties of that high
office, assumed under conditions intricate and most trying, disarmed
criticism by its wisdom and ability.
When a prospective candidate for re-election in 1884 the press of New
York, having solicited expressions of fitness from delegates to the last
National Convention, I was pleased with the opportunity to make this
small contribution.
Little Rock, Ark., Aug. 1, 1884.
Dear Sir:
"I but voice the sentiment of the country when I say that I consider the
Administration of President Arthur has been signalized by its justice,
eminent statesmanship and wise discretion."
Such was the tenor of mention, but much more pronounced, by men of the
party, and Mr. Arthur's nomination previous to the assembling of the
next Presidential Convention seemed a foregone conclusion.
Nothing I can write will fittingly describe the personnel of James G.
Blaine, who was to be the prime feature of the Convention on nomination
day. As a man in the field of statesmanship and in intensity of
devotion, he was more idolized than any since his prototype, Henry Clay.
With political erudition was blended an eloquence inspiring and
fascinating; a nobility of character often displayed as the champion of
the weak; a disputant adept in all the mazes of analysis, denunciation,
or sarcasm, he had created antipathy as bitter as his affections were
unyielding. While Speaker of the House, with his counterpart in
eloquence, Roscoe Conkling, he had many tilts. One of the most noted and
probably far-reaching in impeding his Presidential aspirations, was his
defense of General Fry, whom Conkling sought to have impeached, but who
was successfully vindicated and afterwards promoted by the War
Department. During the struggle Conkling hurled a javelin of taunt and
invective, incisive, but thought to be unjust, inducing a response said
to have been terrific in its onslaught, confounding the speaker and
raising excitement in the House to the highest pitch. I transcribe an
epitome of the speech, which will be seen to have bristled with galling
ridicule: "As to the gentleman's cruel sarcasm, I hope he will not be
too severe. The contempt of that large-minded gentleman is so wilting,
his haughty disdain, his grandiloquent swell, his majestic supereminent,
overpowering turkey-gobbler strut, has been so crushing to myself and
all the members of this House that I know it was an act of the greatest
temerity for me to enter upon a controversy with him." Then, quoting
ironically a newspaper comparison of Mr. Conkling and Henry Winter
Davis, ascribing qualities held by them in common, he proceeded: "The
resemblance is great, and it has given his strut additional pomposity.
The resemblance is great, it is striking--Hyperion to a satyr; Thersites
to Hercules; mud to marble; dunghill to diamond; a singed cat to a
Bengal tiger; a whining puppy to a roaring lion. Shade of the mighty
Davis, forgive the almost profanation of that jocose satire!"
But James G. Blaine, that master of diplomacy and magnetic fame, with an
astute following inspired and wild with gilded promises; the nominating
speech of Robert J. Ingersoll, prince of orators, lauding the nominee as
"like a mailed warrior, like a plumed knight"--all these forces
contributed to turn the tide from Arthur and give him the nomination. I
was one of a lonely three of the Arkansas delegation that stood by the
State's instructions and voted for Arthur, nine of the delegation voting
for Blaine. For obeying the State and not the after conclusion of the
delegation, in my next race for a delegate I was "left at the stand."
My failure reminded me of the boy--a humble imitator of the great George
Washington--who hacked to death a choice tree. When asked who did it,
jolly, gushing and truthful, said, "I did it, pap." The old man seized
and gathered him, stopping the whipping occasionally to get breath and
wipe off the perspiration, would remark: "And had der imperdence to
confess it." The boy, when finally released, between sobs sought solace
by saying, "I will never tell the truth again as long as I live." I did
not conclude that one should be false to an implied promise with
instructions received, but I was impressed with the conviction that it
is unwise to trammel a delegation with decisive instructions. A general
expression of the feeling or bias of the State Convention is proper, but
so much can happen during the interim to change conditions that ultimate
action should be largely left to the judgment and integrity of the
delegation.
The manner of choosing a President is entirely different from that
designed by the founders of the republic. The selection of candidates by
an organized party was not anticipated. It was intended that men of
high character should be chosen by the citizens of each State as
electors, and they should select the men they deemed most fit to be
President, and the selection thereafter ratified by the vote of the
people. An elector now is but the mouthpiece of his party; no matter
what may be his individual judgment, he dare not disregard its fiat. The
result of the national election was the defeat of Mr. Blaine and the
election of the Democratic candidate, Grover Cleveland. Mr. Cleveland
had an independent personality and the courage of his convictions.
Affable and cordial in his intercourse with Afro-Americans, and to those
of his political household was prodigal in the bestowal of appointments.
The effect of this was that many colored men, leaders of thought and
race action, not seeing an increase of oppression, so freely predicted
in the event of a Democratic President, advocated a division of the
colored vote, with a view of harmonizing feeling and mutual benefit. A
welcoming of that approach in the South may be deferred, but will yet be
solicited, despite its present disloyalty to the fourteenth and
fifteenth amendments to the Constitution.