of Thomas had to stand for his life, which he manfully did
by preparing his house to receive the night marauders. The
father finally moved with his family to Jacksonville,
Florida. Here young Thomas soon found a position as a
printer's "devil," which was the first step to that high
position which he now occupies. He left his printer's "case"
for two years in order to attend school and to work in the
Jacksonville city postoffice.
In 1874 he was appointed mail route agent between
Jacksonville and Chattahoochee; but he was soon promoted to
the position of special inspector of customs for the first
district of Delaware. A year later, 1876, young Fortune
entered that school which has been an inspiration to so many
negro youths, Howard University. After two years' study in
this school he returned to the printer's trade. While in
Washington he married Miss Smiley of Florida.
In 1878 Mr. Fortune returned to Florida to try his hand at
school teaching. After a year's experience at this work, he
again returned to his first love, the printer's trade, but
this time he went to New York City. Of course the other
compositors objected to working with a "Nigger," but by the
manly stand of the publisher, Mr. John Dougall, the "Nigger"
remained, and after a short strike the white compositors
were glad to return.
Mr. Fortune's real career as a journalist began in 1880,
when, with two friends, he began the publication of the
_Rumor_, which, after two years, was changed to the _New
York Globe_. After four years the paper was forced to
suspend. Mr. Fortune immediately began the publication of
the _New York Freeman_. A year later, 1885, the name of the
paper was changed to the _New York Age_, of which Mr.
Fortune is still editor.
His writings are, however, not confined to the editing of
his paper. He is the author of several books, but "Black and
White" and "The Negro in Politics" are perhaps the most
noted.
Mr. Fortune was the first to suggest the Afro-American
League, an organization in the interest of the Negro race.
He was the president of the first convention of this league,
which met in Chicago in 1890. His address as president of
the convention was a scathing arraignment of the South.
Mr. Fortune was also elected chairman of the executive
committee of the National Afro-American Press Association
which met in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1890.
The National Negro Business League was the outcome of a
conversation between Booker T. Washington and Mr. Fortune.
Mr. Fortune was elected chairman of the executive committee
of the National Negro Business League which met in Boston in
1900, and also at its meeting in Chicago in 1901.
Mr. Fortune is, as might be suspected, a Republican in
politics. In the presidential election of 1900 he took an
active part in the political canvas of that year. He spoke
in Indiana and in Missouri, advocating the re-election of
President McKinley.
The whole energy of his life is devoted to the interests of
the Negro race in America. He wields a sharp rapier. He is
the complement of Booker T. Washington. Each is doing his
own work in his own way; the one supplements the other's
work.
There are some questions which, it seems to me, need no discussion,
because the truths in them are self-evident; and yet, so perverse is
the human understanding, that unanimity upon any subject of common
interest is rare in social ethics; and by social ethics I mean the
philosophy of organized government in all of its multifarious life.
How intricate and perplexing these questions are; even the uninitiated
intuitively understand, although they cannot explain them; while
ignorant and learned alike wrangle and often fight over the means to
reach ends upon which there is no disagreement. There is, therefore,
no phase of the Afro-American problem upon the proper solution of
which there is not a substantial agreement among members of the race.
The processes by which the solution shall be reached are the bases of
the disagreements and discussions, which often defeat the common wish
and aim.
"What should be the Afro-American's attitude in politics?" is a
sophomoric, rather than a practical, question. What he should do at a
given crisis is answered by what he has done ever since the right to
vote was conferred upon him by the adoption of the war amendments to
the Federal Constitution. Neither threats, fire, rope, nor bullet has
been powerful enough to swerve him from pursuing the course made
mandatory by his self interests. He may have pursued this course by
the intricate process of reasoning employed by educated men, or of
intuition employed by the unlettered. The fact remains that his
attitude has been one of sympathy and helpfulness towards those who
were unmistakably sympathetic and friendly towards him and as
unmistakably antagonistic and troublesome to those who were
antagonistic to him. With him, as with the rest of mankind,
"self-preservation is the first law of nature." What his attitude in
politics should be now will be what it has been--governed absolutely
by his self interests.
There will be nothing gained in the proper education and comprehension
of the subject under discussion by holding up holy hands of horror at
the statement that selfishness, pure and simple, has governed and will
govern the attitude of the Afro-American in politics. The purists, who
prate of the common interest and loyalty to the flag as the first and
highest duty of the citizen, are entitled to their view of the matter,
but the fact remains and is true of the people of every ancient and
modern government that self-interest will govern the actions of the
voter. One of the components which is discriminated against and
oppressed by legal enactment through popular clamor will invariably
produce substantial unanimity of thought and action on the part of the
pariah against the common interest, and, in the last analysis, against
the flag itself, as the emblem of governmental discrimination and
oppression. The Helots of Sparta and the Jews under the Pharaohs were
of this sort. The Jews in Russia and Germany and the Irish in Great
Britain are modern examples. The first concern of every man and of his
own race is his own concern. He will oppose those who oppose him,
whether as individual or state; he will look to his interests first
and to those of his neighbor afterwards. The Afro-American is just
like other people in this, as well as in all respects, despite the
puerile contention of some, even of his own household, that he is not
as other men. He will not love those who hate him nor pray for those
who despitefully use him, although enjoined to do so in thunderous
tones from every pulpit in Christendom. And, therefore, the
Afro-American's attitude in politics will be governed, as it has been,
by his selfish interests. And, why not? The banker's attitude in
politics is governed by the policy that serves his selfish interests
best; the manufacturer's attitude is the same. The same rule of
conduct governs all men in their social and civil relations to the
state.
In a republic, government by party is the fundamental basis of it.
There must be parties or there can be no government; this is equally
true of democracies and limited monarchies. The primary is the basis
of party government. His selfish interests, of whatever sort, make it
necessary for every citizen, who wishes to conserve those interests,
to belong to some one party. Unless he is permitted to enjoy the
rights and benefits of the primary, or party referendum, he cannot
hope to enjoy the rights and benefits of the party of his
choice--enjoy them to their fullest extent--for the right to vote,
which does not carry with it the right to be voted for, leaves the
citizen in a voiceless condition as to those specific interests in
which he is concerned, and which can only be secured from the state
through the action of his party. No man can speak for another as he
can speak for himself, hence, in every party, men and special
interests, such as railroad, bank, manufacturing and the like
interests, habitually seek to put in control persons who will
represent them, speak for them and vote for them upon any question of
legislation which arises. It is because of this that there is great
rejoicing among Afro-Americans when any man of theirs is put forward
for his party in any official capacity whatever, and it is because of
this that so few of them have been, and are put forward.
Wherever an Afro-American is found supporting, by his lung-power and
ballot, a party which denies him participation in its primary (basis
of party) government, then you have found a man who does not know what
his attitude in politics should be; and, whether he should be pitied
or despised, must remain a question for each individual to decide. The
democratic party is the only party in the United States which denies
to the Afro-American this basic right in party government. Logically
enough, it is the only party in the United States which has always
sought to prevent him from enjoying the rights of the elective
franchise, the right to vote and to be voted for, and which has
necessarily, to justify this policy, always sought in every
conceivable way to degrade his manhood to the brute standard. A
voteless citizen is always a social and political outcast; a voteless
race in a composite citizenship will always constitute a problem more
or less dangerous to the state--enemies, fostered in the bosom, as
Cleopatra's asp, only to wound to the death. It has been the way of
the world since the dawn of history.
It is creditable to the good sense and the manhood of the
Afro-American people that they have constantly recognized and acted
upon the theory I have here laid down, as the consistent one in
politics. Their attitude has been manly and consistent; they have
stood by their friends and defied their enemies, even when their
friends have been lukewarm, or brutally indifferent, and this has been
the attitude of their friends since 1870.
Through good and evil report they have refused to be seduced from
their allegiance to the party of freedom, and their enemies have
wreaked their vengeance, without hindrance, so that the attitude books
of every Southern state bristle with a code of laws as infamous and
oppressive as the slave code. But that does not affect the principle
in the least, and the principle is the thing; it is the essence of all
life. He who clings to it, though he may die, as the poor Indian has
done, deserves and receives the respect of mankind. When it has been
said of him that he was corrupt, purchasable, unreliable in politics
and that the franchise should be denied to him by fair or foul means,
because of this, by the kuklux klan terrorists, or red shirt
brutalists--sufficient answer to it all, in my mind, has been that if
he could have been seduced from his best interests, from his friends
in party politics, without violence towards him, none would have
molested him or made him afraid. That is a self-evident proposition in
partisan ethics.
We do not terrorize and shoot and defraud people who vote with us. No,
the Afro-American has instinctively distrusted his political enemies,
even when they came to him bearing grapes in their hands and honey on
their tongues. His attitude has been one of manly protest, wherever he
was allowed to vote, or made to sulk in silence and indignation. And
here has been and here is the rub. When you cannot coax a man against
his will, as Jonathan did David, or purchase his birthright as Jacob
did Esau, if you have the power you terrorize and shoot him into
compliance. That is what the political enemies of the Afro-American
have done and are doing, but patient as the ass and with the faith of
Job, which passes all understanding, he sticks to his principle of
self-interest and waits; and the good proverb says, "All things come
to him who waits." I believe it. And if every man of the race had the
alternative of being shot in his tracks for clinging to his principles
or life eternal for deserting them, the part of manhood and honor
would be to stand up and be shot. As a matter of fact, thousands upon
thousands of Afro-Americans have been shot to death by their political
enemies since 1868, and perhaps thousands more will be shot in the
future in the same way, and for the same reason and by the same
heartless enemies, before the nation reaches the conclusion that an
Afro-American citizen should have as much protection under the Federal
Constitution as any other citizen with a white skin, despite the fact
that the whole matter is largely one of state control and regulation.
When cancers get on the body politic like this of disfranchisement and
debasement of an entire element of the citizenship, they are usually
cut out, as that of slavery, and its exceeding horrors, were.
Steadfastness, therefore, in the faith that moves mountains and
patience which overcomes a world of wrong and injustice, will bring
the reward as it has so often done with the race in the past. The
reward is perfect equality under the laws of the Federal Government
and of the several states. But our attitude must be one of absolute
fidelity to the priceless sacred trust of citizenship, which comes to
us out of the agonies of the greatest war of modern times. If we be
true to ourselves, the great republic will be true to us "in God's way
and time."
THIRD PAPER.
WHAT SHOULD BE THE NEGRO'S ATTITUDE IN POLITICS?
BY HON. GEORGE W. MURRAY.
[Illustration: George Washington Murray.]
GEORGE WASHINGTON MURRAY.
George Washington Murray was born September 22, 1853, of
slave parents, near Rembert, Sumter County, S. C.
Emancipation found him a lad of eleven summers, bereft of
both parents. Without a friend upon whom to rely for either
aid or advice in an impoverishing section, he entered upon
the fierce combat then in progress for the indispensable
bread of life. Among the waifs of his neighborhood in 1866,
he learned the alphabet and acquired an imperfect
pronunciation of monosyllables. In efforts to improve his
meager stock of knowledge during the succeeding five years,
he so industriously applied himself that in January, 1871,
he entered a day school, while in session, for the first
time, but as teacher, not scholar.
He taught until the Fall of 1874, when he successfully
passed a competitive examination and secured a scholarship
as sub-freshman in the reconstructed University of South
Carolina. He was successfully employed as a teacher until
February, 1890, when he secured an appointment as inspector
of customs at the port of Charleston, S. C.
Entering the political arena in the contest for the
Republican nomination for Congress in 1892, he successfully
won the stake and was placed in the general election against
Gen. E. W. Moise, one of the most brilliant, wealthy and
popular Democrats in the State, whom he finally defeated and
was declared elected to the Fifty-third Congress.
He was again elected to the Fifty-fourth Congress, and
counted out, but contested and was finally seated. He was
again elected to the Fifty-fifth and Fifty-sixth Congresses,
and counted out, and failed to be seated after strong
contests.
Since his retirement from congressional contests, seeing the
primary and crying need of his race is a larger per cent of
the ownership of homes, and the impossibility of securing
them in the desired space of time, under the prevailing
circumstances, where the necessaries of life and rents
consume the entire resources year after year, he has applied
himself to the development of a scheme of buying large
estates and cutting them into small holdings, and giving
long periods of time in which to pay for homes, receiving
about the usual rents as payments.
He now has about 200 families located on about 9,000 acres
of land, and is adding from 2,000 to 3,000 acres to his
territory each year.
He has already secured twelve letters patent on a multiple
farming machine, that is destined to revolutionize farming
methods.
Without his request upon the demand of the President
himself, he was recently appointed Division Internal Revenue
Deputy Collector for the district of South Carolina.
To the casual observer the above query is easy of solution, but it is
at the same time engaging the profoundest attention and thought of the
wisest statesmen, and the greatest philanthropists and humanitarians.
It is especially difficult to the black victims of present political
environments.
With a proportionate share of all the elements of strength,
intelligence, wealth, business and character--the Negro's attitude
politically should, and would, be the same as that of the other
members of society.
The writer presume that in dealing with the question at issue, he is
territorially restricted to the ex-slaveholding portions of the United
States, as the Negro's political status in the rest of the territorial
limits of the country differs so little from that of other members of
society.
As we see it, the mistake of the nineteenth century was the attempt to
make the ex-slave a governor, before he had learned to be governed.
It seems that members of the race have not even yet learned that
governments have their origin and growth in the necessities
originating in the business and wealth of mankind, and have attained
their greatest perfection where there is most business and wealth.
The naked, wandering savage has the lowest order of governments,
because, in that state, he has need for no other, and could not
support any higher.
It twenty intelligent and progressive men settle down in the midst of
a hundred thousand such savages, they will immediately set about
establishing business, accumulating wealth, and will very naturally
organize in self-defense, and in time rule the ninety-nine thousand
nine hundred and eighty others.
When just emerging from the shambles of two and a half centuries of
slavery and inforced ignorance, penniless and without experience, it
was a serious blunder to have placed the Negroes in such a position as
to make them responsible for the government.
They were not only without the necessary intelligence and experience
for its successful operation, but all the resources essential to its
maintenance were in the hands of the minority class, and they were
without the ability to compel any contribution for its support.
Placed upon the wrong track in the primary stages of emancipation, the
race spent its energy in trying to control the kind of government that
other people's business and resources made necessary, instead of
trying to acquire the elements which would have made it welcome as
part owners and rulers of that government.
Such conditions as resulted from the plans and policies pursued in the
rehabilitation of civil government, after the War of the Rebellion,
very naturally created great friction between the former master-class,
possessing practically all the business, wealth and experience, though
in the minority in many localities, and the former slave-class,
without business, wealth and experience, on the other hand.
The master-class determined that in self defense it had to organize to
repossess itself of governmental control, which was then in the hands
of the slave-class, and withheld its support from the government,
which the latter class was helpless to compel without the strong
compelling arm of the Federal government, which the peaceful and
considerate judgment of mankind would no longer sustain in maintaining
such conditions.
Whereupon all over the South where the ex-slave class controlled
merely, by reason of numbers, its power and influence failed, until
to-day it finds itself absolutely shorn of power, even so much as is
necessary to protect its property, family and life.
While it may be both unjust and unwise for a class in the condition of
the former slave class to absolutely control a government made
necessary by the resources of others, yet it is a cruel wrong to
deprive it even of that influence that is absolutely necessary for the
protection of family, property and life.
The paramount issue of Southern Negroes should not be political
office, but the possession of such political influence as is necessary
for the protection of their property and lives.
While it is desirable that as many Negroes as possible be provided for
at the official pie-counter, the all important issue, in my humble
judgment, is the equality of civil and political rights, without which
we are in some measure worse off than slaves.
Deprived of that influence, which selfish interests always impel the
master-class to give in defense of his property rights, the
emancipated-class must possess a counter voting power somewhere within
its own personality, which an untrammelled ballot alone affords.
Wisdom dictates that the Negro should speedily assume the task of
producing such conditions as will give the needed influence.
This brings us to the question at issue, What should be the Negro's
attitude politically?
In short, whatever attitude would prove most beneficial to him the
Negro should adapt himself to it, until he shall have acquired
sufficient strength along all lines to occupy and maintain an
independent position, and shape the course of action to suit his fancy
and convenience.
The difference in the treatment of colored men North and South is not
half so much on account of a difference in the education and customs
of the white people in the respective sections, as from the
difference between the business, intellectual and political status of
the members of the colored race itself in the two sections, coupled
with the fact that the white man possessing practically all the
business, wealth, culture and experience in the North, is divided into
political camps, each controlling influence sufficient to protect each
constituent member, however weak, while in the South he is united in
one political party, which wholly destroys the colored man's influence
and partially his own.
In fact, in the North, the combined wealth, culture and influence of
the entire party with which he is allied overshadows and protects his
rights, both public and private, and this brings us to the question at
issue, What should be the Negro's attitude politically?
Upon this question there are as many opinions as there were colors in
Joseph's coat.
Some advise that we solidly vote the Republican ticket.
Others that we should all vote the Democratic ticket; still another
class advise us to divide our vote, and another class advise us not to
vote at all.
There may be a grain of truth in each one of the above theories, but
for all times and occasions each one is essentially false.
Under present environments it appears that we accomplish nothing by
voting the Republican ticket, and gain no more by voting the
Democratic ticket than we would by not voting at all.
To us the all important task is to find a way to make our ballot
effective.
Though, throughout the South, a cruel and savage spirit seems
triumphant, let the Negro take courage, for God is still ruling, and
the very machinery that has been set in motion for his political
destruction is hastening the day of his political regeneration.
The reduction of the Negro's vote to an insignificant fraction which
does away with the possibility of absolute Negro control, is not an
unmixed evil, as it entirely destroys the foundation of the scarecrow
of Negro supremacy, which has been used as a great welding hammer to
forge the white race, with so many divergent views and opinions, into
one political mass, while the standards of wealth and intelligence
raised as a bar to his progress are causing the Negro, as never
before, to bestir himself in efforts to reach them.
Thus it is seen that his would-be enemy destroys the welding hammer at
one fell blow; sets in motion irresistible currents that will
inevitably find outlets in the broad ocean of the political freedom
of both races, and arouse in the Negro, by the standards set up, the
very desirable incentive to make preparation for the enjoyment of the
destined freedom which the fates seem bent on bringing him.
Once more the wonderful hand of Providence is using man's malice and
prejudice as His own marvelous highway of hope to bring good results
from evil intentions.