THE SHAW MONUMENT SPEECH, THE VISIT OF SECRETARY JAMES WILSON, AND THE
LETTER TO THE LOUISIANA CONVENTION.
In the spring of 1897 I received a letter from Hon. Edward Atkinson, of
Boston, inviting me to deliver an address at the dedication of the
Robert Gould Shaw monument in Boston. I take it for granted that my
readers already know all about the history and achievements of Robert
Gould Shaw. The monument dedicated to his memory stands on the historic
Boston Commons, facing Beacon Street, and is said to be the most perfect
piece of art of the kind in this country.
The meeting in connection with the dedicatory exercises was held in
Music Hall, Boston, which was packed from bottom to top with perhaps one
of the most distinguished audiences that has ever assembled in Boston.
In fact, there was a larger number of the old anti-slavery element
present than will perhaps ever assemble again in this country. Hon.
Roger Wolcott, Governor of Massachusetts, was the presiding officer. On
the platform were the Mayor of Boston, the Lieutenant Governor, members
of the Governor’s Council and of the city government of Boston, besides
hundreds of other distinguished persons.
As to the impression made by this address I shall let an editorial which
appeared in the Boston Transcript the next day, together with a few
other newspaper accounts, tell the story.
I spoke as follows:--
“Mr. Chairman and fellow citizens:--
“In this presence, and on this sacred and memorable day, in the deeds
and death of our hero, we recall the old, old story, ever old, yet ever
new, that when it was the will of the Father to lift humanity out of
wretchedness and bondage, the precious task was delegated to him who
among ten thousand was altogether lovely, and was willing to make
himself of no reputation that he might save and lift up others.
“If that heart could throb and those lips could speak, what would be the
sentiment and words that Robert Gould Shaw would have us feel and speak
at this hour? He would not have us to dwell long on the mistakes, the
injustice, the criticisms of the days--
‘Of storm and cloud, of doubt and fears,
Across the eternal sky must lower;
Before the glorious noon appears.’
“He would have us bind up with his own undying fame and memory and
retain by the side of his monument, the name of John A. Andrew, who,
with prophetic vision and strong arm, helped to make the existence of
the 54th regiment possible; and that of George L. Stearns, who, with
hidden generosity and a great, sweet heart, helped to turn the darkest
hour into day, and in doing so freely gave service, fortune and life
itself to the cause which this day commemorates. Nor would he have us
forget those brother officers, living and dead, who, by their baptism in
blood and fire, in defense of Union and freedom, gave us an example of
the highest and purest patriotism.
“To you who fought so valiantly in the ranks, the scarred and scattered
remnant of the 54th regiment, who with empty sleeve and wanting leg,
have honored this occasion with your presence, to you your commander is
not dead. Though Boston erected no monument and history recorded no
story, in you and the loyal race you represent, Robert Gould Shaw would
have a monument which time could not wear away.
“But an occasion like this is too great, too sacred, for mere individual
eulogy. The individual is the instrument, national virtue the end. That
which was 300 years being woven into the warp and woof of our democratic
institutions could not be effaced by a single battle, as magnificent as
was that battle; that which for three centuries had bound master and
slave, yea, North and South, to a body of death, could not be blotted
out by four years of war, could not be atoned for by shot and sword, nor
by blood and tears.
“Not many days ago, in the heart of the South, in a large gathering of
the people of my race, there were heard from many lips praises and
thanksgiving to God for his goodness in setting them free from physical
slavery. In the midst of that assembly a Southern white man arose, with
gray hair and trembling hands, the former owner of many slaves, and from
his quivering lips there came the words: “My friends, you forget in your
rejoicing that in setting you free, God was also good to me and my race
in setting us free.” But there is a higher and deeper sense in which
both races must be free than that represented by the bill of sale. The
black man who cannot let love and sympathy go out to the white man is
but half free. The white man who would close the shop or factory against
a black man seeking an opportunity to earn an honest living is but half
free. The white man who retards his own development by opposing a black
man is but half free. The full measure of the fruit of Fort Wagner and
all that this monument stands for will not be realized until every man
covered with a black skin shall by patient and natural effort, grow to
that height in industry, property, intelligence and moral
responsibility, where no man in all our land will be tempted to degrade
himself by withholding from his black brother any opportunity which he
himself would possess.
“Until that time comes this monument will stand for effort, not victory
complete. What these heroic souls of the 54th regiment began we must
complete. It must be completed not in malice, not in narrowness; nor
artificial progress, nor in efforts at mere temporary political gain,
nor in abuse of another section or race. Standing as I do to-day in the
home of Garrison and Phillips and Sumner, my heart goes out to those who
wore the gray as well as to those clothed in the blue; to those who
returned defeated, to destitute homes, to face blasted hopes and a
shattered political and industrial system. To them there can be no
prouder reward for defeat than by a supreme effort to place the Negro on
that footing where he will add material, intellectual and civil strength
to every department of the State.
“This work must be completed in the public school, industrial school and
college. The most of it must be completed in the effort of the Negro
himself, in his effort to withstand temptation, to economize, to
exercise thrift, to disregard the superficial for the real, the shadow
for the substance, to be great and yet small, in his effort to be
patient in the laying of a firm foundation, to grow so strong in skill
and knowledge that he shall place his service in demand by reason of
his intrinsic and superior worth. All this makes the key that unlocks
every door of opportunity, and all others fail. In this battle of peace
the rich and poor, the black and white may have a part.
“What lessons has this occasion for the future? What of hope, what of
encouragement, what of caution? ‘Watchman, tell us of the night; what
the signs of promise are.’ If through me, an humble representative,
nearly ten millions of my people might be permitted to send a message to
Massachusetts, to the survivors of the 54th regiment, to the committee
whose untiring energy has made this memorial possible, to the family who
gave their only boy that we might have life more abundantly, that
message would be, ‘Tell them that the sacrifice was not in vain, that up
from the depth of ignorance and poverty we are coming, and if we come
through oppression out of the struggle, we are gaining strength. By the
way of the school, the well cultivated field, the skilled hand, the
Christian home, we are coming up; that we propose to invite all who will
to step up and occupy this position with us. Tell them that we are
learning that standing ground for a race, as for an individual, must be
laid in intelligence, industry, thrift and property, not as an end, but
as a means to the highest privileges; that we are learning that neither
the conqueror’s bullet nor the fiat of law could make an ignorant voter
an intelligent voter, could make a dependent man an independent man,
could give one citizen respect for another, a bank account, nor a foot
of land, nor an enlightened fireside. Tell them that as grateful as we
are to artist and patriotism for placing the figures of Shaw and his
comrades in physical form of beauty and magnificence, that after all,
the real monument, the greater monument, is being slowly but safely
builded among the lowly in the South, in the struggles and sacrifices of
a race to justify all that has been done and suffered for it.’
“One of the wishes that lay nearest Colonel Shaw’s heart was, that his
black troops might be permitted to fight by the side of the white
soldiers. Have we not lived to see that wish realized, and will it not
be more so in the future? Not at Wagner, not with rifle and bayonet, but
on the field of peace, in the battle of industry, in the struggle for
good government, in the lifting up of the lowest to the fullest
opportunities. In this we shall fight by the side of the white man,
North and South. And if this be true, as under God’s guidance it will,
that old flag, that emblem of progress and security, which brave
Sergeant Carney never permitted to fall upon the ground, will still be
borne aloft by Southern soldier and Northern soldier, and, in a more
potent and higher sense, we shall all realize that--
‘The slave’s chain and the master’s alike broken;
The one curse of the race held both in tether;
They are rising, all are rising--
The black and the white together.’”
From the Boston Evening Transcript of June 1st, the following is taken:
“The core and kernel of yesterday’s great noon meeting in honor of the
Brotherhood of Man in Music Hall, was the superb address of the Negro
President of Tuskegee. Booker T. Washington received his Harvard A. M.
last June, the first of his race, said Governor Wolcott, to receive an
honorary degree from the oldest university in this country, and this for
the wise leadership of his people. And when Mr. Washington rose up in
the flag-filled, enthusiasm-warmed, patriotic and glowing atmosphere of
Music Hall, people felt keenly that here was the civic justification of
the old abolition spirit of Massachusetts, in his person the proof of
her ancient and indomitable faith; in his strong thought and rich
oratory, the crown and glory of the old war days of suffering and
strife. The scene was full of historic beauty and a deep significance.
‘Cold’ Boston was alive with the fire that is always hot in her heart
for righteousness and truth. Rows and rows of people who are seldom seen
at any public function, whole families of those who are certain to be
out of town on a holiday, crowded the place to overflowing. The city was
at her birthright fete in the persons of hundreds of her best citizens,
men and women whose lives and names stand for the virtues that make for
honorable civic pride.
“Battle music had filled the air. Ovation after ovation, applause warm
and prolonged had greeted the officers and friends of Colonel Shaw, the
sculptor, St. Gaudens, the memorial committee, the Governor and his
staff, and the Negro soldiers of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts as they
came upon the platform or entered the hall. Chief Marshal Appleton and
Mr. Chaplain Hall had performed their duties. Colonel Henry Lee, of
Governor Andrew’s old staff, had made the noble, simple presentation
speech for the committee, paying tribute to the chairman, Mr. John M.
Forbes, in whose stead he served. Governor Wolcott had made his short
memorable speech, saying, ‘Fort Wagner marked an epoch in history of a
race and called it into manhood.’ Mayor Quincy had received the monument
for the city of Boston in eloquent words. Professor James, brother of
Adjutant James, who fell at Fort Wagner, wounded but not killed, had
told the story of Colonel Shaw and his black regiment in gallant words.
He got at the soul of the day’s meaning when he said that the
battle-instinct is strong enough in the race, bred in our bone and
blood, but what is needed is ‘that lonely kind of valor, civic courage
we call it in time of peace;’ which blesses a nation with a continued
saying, and whose ‘inner mystery’ the precious virtue of civil genius is
preserved in perfect good temper and in power of righteous wrath. And
then after the singing of
‘Mine eyes have seen the glory,
Of the coming of the Lord,’
Booker Washington arose. It was, of course, just the moment for him. The
multitude, shaken out of its usual Symphony concert calm, quivered with
an excitement that was not suppressed. A dozen times it had sprung to
its feet to cheer and wave and hurrah, as one person. When this man of
culture and voice and power, as well as dark skin, began with the
biblical poetic touch in his first words, and quickly uttered the names
of Andrew and of Stearns, feeling began to mount. You could see tears
glisten in the eyes of the soldiers and civilians on the platform. When
the orator turned to the colored soldiers on the platform, to the color
bearer of Fort Wagner, who smiling bore still the flag he never lowered,
even when wounded, and said: ‘To you, to the scarred and scattered
remnants of the Fifty-fourth, who, with empty sleeve and wanting leg,
have honored this occasion with your presence, to you, your commander is
not dead. Though Boston erected no monument, and history recorded no
story, in you and the loyal race you represent, Robert Gould Shaw would
have a monument which time could not wear away,’ then came the climax of
the emotion of the day and the hour. It was Roger Wolcott as well as the
Governor of Massachusetts, the individual representative of the people’s
sympathy, as well as the chief magistrate, who had sprung first to his
feet and cried, ‘Three cheers to Booker T. Washington.’”
One incident, however, I note that the newspapers do not describe fully.
Most of my readers will perhaps know that Sergeant William H. Carney, of
New Bedford, Mass., was the brave colored officer who at the battle of
Fort Wagner, was the color bearer and held on to the American flag.
Notwithstanding the fact that a large proportion of his regiment was
slain, he escaped in some miraculous manner and exclaimed, after the
battle was over, “The old flag never touched the ground.”
Before I made this address I had never met Sergeant Carney. Sergeant
Carney, however, together with a remnant of the Fifty-fourth
Massachusetts Regiment, was present on a front seat, and he held in his
hand the same flag which he had held on to safely during the battle of
Fort Wagner. When I turned to address the colored regiment and referred
to Sergeant Carney, he rose as if by instinct with the flag in his
hands. It has been my privilege to witness a good many satisfactory and
rather sensational demonstrations in connection with several of my
public addresses, but in dramatic effect I have never seen nor
experienced anything that equaled the impression made on the audience
when Sergeant Carney arose. For a good many minutes the audience seemed
to entirely lose control of itself and patriotic feeling was at a high
pitch.
In November, 1897, the Tuskegee Institute received its first recognition
from a member of the President’s cabinet, in the way of a visit from
Hon. James A. Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture. A year previous to the
visit of Secretary Wilson, I began making efforts, in connection with
friends of the institution, to raise money enough to erect a building to
be devoted wholly to the teaching of agriculture, horticulture,
dairying, fruit-gardening, market gardening, etc. About $10,000 was
secured for the erection of this building. Secretary Wilson, whom I had
met in the West some months before, promised me that he would try to be
present at the formal opening of this building, and he kept his promise.
Secretary Wilson was accompanied from Washington by Dr. J. L. M. Curry,
the agent of the John F. Slater Fund, and was met at Tuskegee by Gov.
Joseph F. Johnston and a large crowd of colored and white citizens. In
addition to the persons named there were present, Ex-Gov. Northern, of
Georgia, and the State Superintendent of Education of Georgia, Major
Glenn. The occasion was widely published throughout the country and did
much to place the work of the school prominently before the people. The
opening of this building marked the beginning of a new era in the
history of the Tuskegee Institute as since that time we have emphasized
the teaching of agriculture to our students. During the earlier years of
the school we found it difficult to get students to take much interest
in our farm work. They wanted to go into the mechanical trades instead.
After the opening of this agricultural building and the securing of Mr.
Geo. W. Carver, a thoroughly educated man in all matters pertaining to
agriculture, the Agricultural Department has been put upon such a high
plane that the students no longer look upon agriculture as a drudgery,
and many of our best students are anxious to enter the Agricultural
Department. We have demands from all parts of the South for men who have
finished our courses in agriculture, dairying, etc., in fact, the
demands are far greater than we can supply. I often wonder why it is,
there being such excellent openings in these directions, that so few of
our young men are willing to prepare themselves for these valuable and
responsible positions.
I shall not occupy much more of the reader’s time in detailing accounts
of my various speechmaking tours; were I to do so, a good part of this
volume would be occupied in a description of them. Nearly one-half of my
time is spent away from Tuskegee addressing audiences of various kinds
in different parts of the country; sometimes in the South, other times
in the Middle or Eastern States, and going as far West in many cases as
Denver and Omaha. There is never a day that I do not receive a number of
invitations urging me to go to some section of the country to make an
address. When I am away from Tuskegee the portion of the time that is
not spent in making addresses in behalf of Tuskegee is spent in seeing
individuals. The latter work I consider very important and far-reaching.
During the winter of 1898 a State Constitutional Convention assembled in
New Orleans, La., for the purpose of passing a law which would result in
disfranchising a large proportion of the Negro voters. Some portion of
the Convention were very anxious to pass a law that would result in the
disfranchising of the Negro voters without disfranchising any portion of
the white voters. The passing of any such law seemed to me so
manifestly unjust that I addressed an open letter to the Convention,
which read as follows:
“_To the Louisiana State Constitutional Convention:_
“In addressing you this letter I know that I am running the risk of
appearing to meddle with something that does not concern me. But since I
know that nothing but love for our beautiful southland, which I hold as
near my heart as any of you can, and a sincere love for every black man
and white man within her borders, is the only thing actuating me to
write, I am willing to be misjudged, if need be, if I can accomplish a
little good.
“But I do not believe that you, gentlemen of the Convention, will
misinterpret my motives. What I say will, I believe, be considered in
the same earnest spirit in which I write.
“I am no politician; on the other hand, I have always advised my race to
give attention to acquiring property, intelligence and character, as the
necessary bases of good citizenship, rather than to mere political
agitation. But the question upon which I write is out of the region of
ordinary politics; it affects the civilization of two races, not for
to-day alone, but for a very long time to come; it is up in the region
of duty of man to man, of Christian to Christian.
“Since the war, no State has had such an opportunity to settle for all
time the race question, so far as it concerns politics, as is now given
in Louisiana. Will your Convention set an example to the world in this
respect? Will Louisiana take such high and just ground in respect to the
Negro that no one can doubt that the South is as good a friend to the
Negro as he possesses elsewhere? In all this, gentlemen of the
Convention, I am not pleading for the Negro alone, but for the morals,
the higher life of the white man as well. For the more I study this
question, the more I am convinced that it is not so much a question as
to what the white man will do with the Negro, as to what the Negro will
do with the white man’s civilization.
“The Negro agrees with you that it is necessary to the salvation of the
South that restriction be put upon the ballot. I know that you have two
serious problems before you; ignorant and corrupt government on the one
hand, and on the other a way to restrict the ballot so that control will
be in the hands of the intelligent, without regard to race. With the
sincerest sympathy with you in your efforts to find a way out of the
difficulty, I want to suggest that no State in the South can make a law
that will provide an opportunity or temptation for an ignorant white man
to vote, and withhold the same opportunity from an ignorant colored
man, without injuring both men. No State can make a law that can thus be
executed, without dwarfing for all time the morals of the white man in
the South. Any law controlling the ballot, that is not absolutely just
and fair to both races, will work more permanent injury to the whites
than to the blacks.
“The Negro does not object to an education or property test, but let the
law be so clear that no one clothed with State authority will be tempted
to perjure and degrade himself, by putting one interpretation upon it
for the white man and another for the black man. Study the history of
the South, and you will find that where there has been the most
dishonesty in the matter of voting, there you will find to-day the
lowest moral condition of both races. First, there was the temptation to
act wrongly with the Negro’s ballot. From this it was an easy step to
dishonesty with the white man’s ballot, to the carrying of concealed
weapons, to the murder of a Negro, and then to the murder of a white man
and then to lynching. I entreat you not to pass such a law as will prove
an eternal millstone about the neck of your children.
“No man can have respect for government and officers of the law when he
knows, deep down in his heart, that the exercise of the franchise is
tainted with fraud.
“The road that the South has been compelled to travel during the last
thirty years has been strewn with thorns and thistles. It has been as
one groping through the long darkness into the light. The time is not
very far distant when the world will begin to appreciate the real
character of the burden that was imposed upon the South when 4,500,000
ex-slaves, ignorant and impoverished, were given the franchise. No
people had before been given such a problem to solve. History had blazed
no path through the wilderness that could be followed. For thirty years
we have wandered in the wilderness. We are beginning to get out. But
there is but one road out, and all makeshifts, expedients, ‘profit and
loss calculations,’ but lead into the swamps, quicksands, quagmires and
jungles. There is a highway that will lead both races out into the pure,
beautiful sunshine, where there will be nothing to hide and nothing to
explain, where both races can grow strong and true and useful in every
fibre of their being. I believe that your convention will find this
highway; that it will enact a fundamental law which will be absolutely
just and fair to white and black alike.
“I beg of you, further, that in the degree that you close the ballot box
against the ignorant, that you open the school house. More than one-half
of the people of your State are Negroes. No State can long prosper when
a large percentage of its citizenship is in ignorance and poverty, and
has no interest in government. I beg of you that you do not treat us as
an alien people. We are not aliens. You know us; you know that we have
cleared your forests, tilled your fields, nursed your children and
protected your families. There is an attachment between us that few
understand. While I do not presume to advise you, yet it is in my heart
to say that if your convention would do something that would prevent,
for all time, strained relations between the two races, and would
permanently settle the matter of political relations in one State in the
South, at least, let the very best educational opportunities be provided
for both races; and add to this the enactment of an election law that
shall be incapable of unjust discrimination, at the same time providing
that in proportion as the ignorant secure education, property and
character, they will be given the right of citizenship. Any other course
will take from one-half of your citizens interest in the State, and hope
and ambition to become intelligent producers and tax-payers--to become
useful and virtuous citizens. Any other course will tie the white
citizens of Louisiana to a body of death.
“The Negroes are not unmindful of the fact that the white people of your
State pay the greater portion of the school taxes, and that the poverty
of the State prevents it from doing all that it desires for public
education; yet, I believe you will agree with me, that ignorance is more
costly to the State than education; that it will cost Louisiana more not
to educate the Negroes than it will to educate them. In connection with
a generous provision for public schools, I believe that nothing will so
help my own people in your State as provision at some institution for
the highest academic and normal training in connection with thorough
training in agriculture, mechanics and domestic economy. The fact is,
that 90 per cent. of our people depend upon the common occupations for
their living, and outside of the cities, 85 per cent. depend upon
agriculture for support. Notwithstanding this, our people have been
educated since the war in everything else but the very things that most
of them live by. First-class training in agriculture, horticulture,
dairying, stock raising, the mechanical arts and domestic economy, will
make us intelligent producers, and not only help us to contribute our
proportion as taxpayers, but will result in retaining much money in the
State that now goes out for that which can be produced in the State. An
institution that will give this training of the hand, along with the
highest mental culture, will soon convince our people that their
salvation is in
[Illustration: MRS. OLIVIA DAVIDSON WASHINGTON.]
[Illustration: GIRLS AT TUSKEGEE ENGAGED AT FLORICULTURE.]
the ownership of property, industrial and business development, rather
than mere political agitation.
“The highest test of civilization of any race is in its willingness to
extend a helping hand to the less fortunate. A race, like an individual,
lifts itself up by lifting others up. Surely no people ever had a
greater chance to exhibit the highest Christian fortitude and
magnanimity than is now presented to the people of Louisiana. It
requires little wisdom or statesmanship to repress, to crush out, to
retard the hopes and aspirations of a people, but the highest and most
profound statesmanship is shown in guiding and stimulating a people so
that every fibre in the body, mind and soul shall be made to contribute
in the highest degree to the usefulness and nobility of the State. It is
along this line that I pray God the thoughts and activities of your
Convention be guided.”
This letter was sent out through the Associated Press widely through the
country. The leading papers of New Orleans as well as many parts of the
South indorsed my position editorially. The law that was finally passed
by the Convention, while not as bad as when first presented to the
Convention, was not by any means the law that should have been enacted.
In June of the same year I delivered the annual address before the
Regents of the University of New York, at Albany, and was the guest
while in that city of the Hon. Mr. McElroy, brother-in-law to the late
President Chester A. Arthur. It was the original plan to have this
address in the Senate Chamber, but the audience was so large that the
plan was changed, and the meeting was held in one of the large churches
in the city.