THIRD CONTACT OF AFRICANDER AND BRITON—IN THE TRANSVAAL.
The aggressive policy of the British, which had served to widen and
deepen the breach between them and the Africanders of the Free State,
was felt in the Transvaal Republic, also, and led to an open rupture in
1880. It will be necessary to trace somewhat carefully the conditions
and events which brought on that conflict.
The Africanders who had settled beyond the Vaal River were of a ruder
sort than their brethren of the Orange River district. Moreover, the
reckless, unprincipled, and even criminal classes were attracted to the
Transvaal from various parts of South Africa, seeking freedom from the
restraints experienced under the stricter government prevailing in the
British colonies. These occasioned much scandal, and provoked many
conflicts with the Kaffirs by their lawlessness and violence along the
border and in the wilder districts of the territory.
The farmers of the Vaal in a general way considered themselves one
people, but had become grouped in several districts separated by
considerable distances. Thus, in 1852, there were four separate
communities—Potchefstroom, Utrecht, Lyndenburg, and Zoutspansberg, each
having its volksraad and president. There was no co-ordinate action of
the whole for internal administration and public improvement, but for
defense against the natives there was a sort of federative union—more a
matter of mutual understanding and consent than of loyalty to a formal
written document. That there was occasional independent action by a
single community in reference to outside matters is evident from the
invasion of the Orange Free State by the people of the Potchefstroom
district in 1857, under the leadership of Mr. Pretorius. The object was
to conquer the Free State, and was abandoned only when it was found
that the young sister republic was disposed and prepared to defend
itself. This invasion resulted in a treaty by which the independence,
boundaries and mutual obligations of the two republics were fully
defined and recognized.
In 1858 a single volksraad was chosen for all the four districts north
of the Vaal, and the “Grondwet” on Fundamental Law—an instrument in the
nature of a federal constitution—was prepared by delegates specially
elected for that purpose. This was adopted at once by Potchefstroom and
Zoutspansberg. In 1860 Lyndenburg and Utrecht followed their example.
Although it has been contended that the “Grondwet” is not to be
regarded as a fixed constitution, like that of the United States of
America, the people of the Transvaal have looked upon it as a
sufficient federative bond for the union of the four semi-independent
districts in one nationality. The practical union of all was delayed,
however, by a civil war which broke out in 1862, and had a most
disastrous influence on the future of the country.
This internal strife grew out of the election of the president of the
Transvaal Republic, the younger Pretorius, to the presidency of the
Orange Free State. It was hoped by his partisans in both republics that
the dual presidency would help to bring about the desired union of the
Free State and the Transvaal under one government. While Mr. Pretorius
was absent in the Free State, on a six months’ leave granted by the
volksraad of the Transvaal, a faction hostile to him began to protest
against this double dignity being enjoyed by any one man, and to argue
that the advantages of union would be largely with the Free State.
Hostility to Mr. Pretorius grew apace until it was strong enough to get
a resolution passed in the volksraad forbidding him to perform any
executive act north of the Vaal during the six months of his stay in
the Free State, and requiring him to give an account of his proceedings
at the expiration of his leave.
On the 10th of September, 1860, Mr. Pretorius appeared before the
volksraad of the Transvaal, accompanied by a commission from the Free
State appointed to ask for a further leave of absence for the
president, and to further the interests of union. When Pretorius
offered to give an account of his proceedings as president of the Free
State, the opposition raised the point that it was manifestly illegal
for any one to be president of the Transvaal Republic and of the Orange
Free State at the same time, for it was provided in their constitution
that during his term of office the president should follow no other
occupation, and Mr. Pretorius was pressed to resign one office or the
other.
Pretorius at once resigned the presidency of the Transvaal; but his
partisans held a mass meeting at Potchefstroom, on the 8th and 9th of
October, at which revolutionary proceedings were taken. It was
resolved, almost unanimously, that the volksraad no longer enjoyed the
confidence of the people they represented and must be held as having
ceased to exist; that Mr. Pretorius should remain president of the
Transvaal Republic and have a year’s leave of absence to bring about
union with the Free State, Mr. Stephanas Schoeman—instead of Mr.
Grobbelear—to be acting president during his absence; and that before
the return of Mr. Pretorius to resume his duties a new volksraad should
be elected.
The new election was so manipulated that only a thousand burghers
voted, and of these more than seven hundred declared in favor of the
resolutions of the Potchefstroom meeting. The committee that effected
this clever political strategy was composed of Messrs. D. Steyn,
Preller, Lombard, Spruyt, and Bodenstein. The new acting president, Mr.
Schoeman, assumed official duty immediately.
With amazing inconsistency—for he was thought to be a loyal friend of
Mr. Pretorius—Schoeman called a meeting of the old volksraad that had
been dissolved by the revolution. He held his office from the same
authority that had declared this body to have forfeited confidence, and
to be non-existent, and yet he acknowledged its legal existence. The
old volksraad met on the 14th of January, 1861, and after a session of
two hours the majority of the members resigned, being convinced of the
general antagonism of the people. Not content to let matters rest in a
peaceful acquiescence in the revolution, Mr. Schoeman called the old
volksraad together a second time, under armed protection, and procured
an order for legal proceedings to be instituted against the committee
that had carried out the Potchefstroom resolutions. A court consisting
of two landdrosts—one of whom was Cornelius Potgieter, their bitterest
political enemy—tried the committee for sedition, on the 14th of
February, found them guilty and sentenced each to pay a fine of £100,
except Mr. Bodenstein, whose fine was only £15.
These proceedings led to great disturbances throughout the republic,
and, finally, to war. Schoeman assembled an armed force to support his
authority. Thereupon, Commandant Paul Kruger, of Rustenburg, called out
the burghers of his district and marched to Pretoria for the purpose of
driving out Schoeman and establishing a better government.
Among the expedients resorted to to prevent bloodshed, a new volksraad
was elected, a new acting president was appointed, and for several
months there were two rival governments in the Transvaal. Acting
President Schoeman, supported by a strong party, persisted in endeavors
to rule the country. So grievous a state of anarchy prevailed that
Kruger resolved to put an end to it by the strong hand. Schoeman and
his partisans retreated from Pretoria to Potchefstroom, where he was
besieged by the burgher force under Kruger. The loss of life in the
bombardment, and one sortie by the garrison, was not great; but
Schoeman became disheartened and fled, on the night of the 9th of
October, into the Free State, accompanied by his principal adherents.
A few days later, Kruger having moved his force to Klip River, Schoeman
re-entered Potchefstroom, rallied some eight hundred men around him,
and Kruger returned to give him battle. At this critical point
President Pretorius interposed as mediator, and an agreement was
reached by which immediate hostilities were prevented. Schoeman,
however, continued to agitate.
Under the terms of agreement new elections were held by which W. C.
Janse Van Rensburg was chosen president over Mr. Pretorius, and Paul
Kruger was made Commandant-General.
But the tribulations of the Transvaal were by no means over. On the
pretense that the ballot papers had been tampered with the standard of
revolt was again raised—this time by Jan Viljoen. The first encounter
was against Kruger, who had underestimated the strength of the new
rebellion. Later, on the 5th of January, 1864, a battle was fought in
which Viljoen was defeated and compelled to retreat to a fortified camp
on the Limpopo.
Again Mr. Pretorius offered himself as mediator, and by common consent
a new election was held in which Pretorius was chosen president by a
large majority over Van Rensburg. With Pretorius as president, and Paul
Kruger as commandant-general, the government was of such harmony and
strength as prevented any further open rebellion on the part of
disaffected burghers.
But though the civil strife was ended, the injury it had inflicted was
well nigh incurable. It is to be reckoned chief among the causes of the
weakness in after years that made it possible—and, in the judgment of
some, necessary and justifiable—for the British government to thrust in
its strong hand and subvert the independent but tottering republic that
it might substitute therefor a more stable colonial administration. The
treasury had been impoverished. Taxes were uncollected and
irrecoverable. Salaries and other public liabilities were heavily in
arrears. Worse than all these, the republic had forfeited the
confidence of other nations to that degree that no one believed in its
stability. Even its nearest neighbor and sister republic, the Orange
Free State, no longer desired union, preferring to stand alone before
the constant menace of the Basutos rather than to be joined with a
country wherein efficient government seemed to have perished. To make
matters still worse, the discord among the whites was turned to
advantage by their colored foes.
When the several factions in the Transvaal united on Mr. Pretorius as
their executive head, in 1864, the white population, all told, did not
exceed 30,000—less than one person to three square miles—while the
blacks in the same territory numbered hundreds of thousands. During the
three years succeeding 1861 the prevailing anarchy made it impossible
to give attention to cessions of land agreed to by the Zulu chiefs. In
consequence, the boundaries had not been fixed, and these districts
remained unoccupied by the whites. With the restoration of something
like order in 1864, the government realized that its relations with
some of its native neighbors required definition and formal settlement.
This was successfully done, and the lines mutually agreed upon between
the whites and the native authorities were duly marked.
A leading spirit among the Zulus of this time was Cetawayo, a chief of
remarkable subtlety and power. In less than two months after the
settlement and marking of boundaries in the southern region of the
Transvaal Cetawayo found some pretext for repudiating his bargain,
appeared on the borders of Utrecht at the head of a Zulu army, in
February, 1865, and removed the landmarks so lately set up. During the
negotiations that followed, Cetawayo did not appear at any conference,
but the presence of his force on the border so far affected the final
settlement that the boundary was changed near the Pongolo River,
restoring a small district in that region to Zululand.
This was a time of perpetual struggle with the blacks. Some of the
tribes had been made tributary to the Republic, others were practically
independent, and with these frequent and cruel wars were waged.
Unspeakable atrocities were perpetrated on both sides—the Kaffirs
slaughtering without mercy such white families as they were able to
surprise in a defenseless state, and the Africanders inflicting
vengeance without mercy when they came upon the savages in kraal or
mountain stronghold.
The whites could always defeat the natives in a pitched battle, but to
hold so vast a number in subjection was beyond their power. And they
seem to have relished everything connected with an expedition against
the blacks but the expense; they had an invincible dislike to paying
taxes for any purpose.
In a rude way these Transvaal Africanders lived in the enjoyment of
plenty derived from their flocks and herds, but metal currency was
almost unknown to them. Such business as they transacted was mostly in
the nature of barter. They were yet too crude and primitive in their
ideas to value aright the benefits secured to a civilized community by
a well organized and firmly administered government controlling fiscal
and other domestic matters of general interest, as well as directing
foreign policies.
The public treasury was in a state of chronic emptiness. The paper
currency depreciated more and more till in 1870 its purchasing value
was only twenty-five per cent of its face value. Public works and
proper internal administration were unknown. Largely, every man’s will
was his law, which he was disposed to enforce upon others—whether black
or white—by the strong hand.
In 1872 Mr. Pretorius became cordially disliked by the people and was
forced to resign the presidency, because he had accepted the finding of
the arbitration which awarded the diamond fields to Nicholas Waterboer
instead of to the Transvaal Republic. His successor, Mr. Burgess, a
native of Cape Colony and an unfrocked clergyman of the Dutch Reformed
Church, was an unfortunate choice. Learned, eloquent and energetic, he
was nevertheless deficient in practical business wisdom and in
political acumen, and he was much distrusted by the burghers on account
of his theological opinions. Some of them charged that he was guilty of
maintaining that the real Devil differed from the pictures of him in
the old Dutch Bibles, in that he had no tail. For this and worse forms
of heterodoxy he was blamed as the cause of the calamities experienced
by the nation during his presidency. Mr. Burgers is said to have formed
many visionary though patriotic plans for the development of his
country and the extension of the Africander power over the whole of
South Africa, but his people were not of the sort that could appreciate
them, nor had he command of resources sufficient to carry them out.
Then drew near the culmination of evil—the inevitable consequence of
weakness in numbers; of indisposition to submit to a strong government;
of a treasury impoverished by civil war; of continual conflict with the
savage blacks; and, withal, of a state of anarchy among themselves. In
1876 the portents of approaching calamity multiplied. In a war with
Sikukuni, a powerful Kaffir chief paramount in the mountainous district
to the northeast, the Africanders were worsted so completely that they
returned to their homes disheartened and in confusion. On the southeast
their border was threatened by hordes of Zulus under Cetawayo, now
manifesting a decided disposition to attack.
In fact, the weak and disordered condition of the republic exposed its
own people—many of whom were British subjects—to immediate and
frightful danger. Moreover, it constituted a danger to all the European
communities in South Africa. In the event of two such chiefs as
Sikukuni and Cetawayo joining forces against the whites and prevailing,
as they seemed able and likely to do, over the frontier civilization in
the Transvaal Republic, nothing could prevent them from moving in
strength against the Free State on the south, and Natal on the
southeast, and later, against Cape Colony itself.
It was not without cause, therefore, that the British government
resolved to avert the threatened conflict. There were two possible ways
of doing this. Britain might have taken the field as a friendly ally,
making common cause with the Transvaal Republic against a common
danger, and leaving its independence intact. The other way was to annex
the Transvaal territory, subvert its republican government, and give it
the status and administration of a British colony. There is no record
to show that the British government ever entertained the thought of
acting as the ally of the republic. On the contrary, Sir Theophilus
Shepstone was appointed as imperial commissioner to visit the scene of
danger and examine into the state of the country. He was secretly
instructed and authorized to proclaim the immediate annexation of the
Transvaal territory to the British dominions in South Africa in case he
deemed it necessary for the general safety to do so, and if, in his
judgment, a majority of the people would favor the step.
After three months spent in observing and studying the situation Sir
Theophilus Shepstone, acting under the secret instructions given him,
on the 12th of April, 1877, declared The Transvaal Republic annexed,
for protection, to British dominions in South Africa. His act was
indorsed officially by the resident British High Commissioner at the
Cape, and by the Secretary of the Colonial Office in England. In 1879
the Territory was declared a crown colony of Great Britain. Thus, in
the third contact of Boer and Briton, an independent republic was
deprived of its independence by the self-same power that had guaranteed
it in 1852, and was reduced to the status of a crown colony without the
formal consent of its people and against the protests of many of them.
Before closing this chapter of events connected with this arbitrary and
startling measure, it will be well to consider some further facts which
belong to the setting in which the act should be viewed. Mr. Burgers,
the president, had repeatedly warned the people that unless certain
reforms could be effected they must lose their independence. They
agreed with him, but did nothing to carry out the necessary reforms,
nor would they pay taxes. Mr. Burgers was not strong with any party in
the country. One section of the people were for Paul Kruger, his rival
candidate for the approaching presidential election. Another
party—principally English settlers—favored annexation. Besides, he had
estranged the great body of the people by his heterodox opinions in
theology. Being helpless, Mr. Burgers recorded his personal protest
against annexation and returned to the Cape, where he lived on a
pension granted him in consideration of his having spent all his
private fortune in the service of his country.
Mr. Kruger—then the vice-president, the entire executive council, and
the volksraad, all protested against the annexation; and delegates were
sent to London to carry the protest to the foot of the British throne.
The mass of the people made no resistance at the time, nor did they
express much displeasure; but, a little later, a large majority of them
signed a petition praying for a reversal of the act of annexation.
Their temporary acquiescence in the loss of independence was due, no
doubt, to the depressing fears that had so lately burdened them, and a
sense of relief in knowing that now the Kaffir invasion that had
threatened their very existence would be repelled by the military power
of Great Britain.