Part 49

It is simply a matter of money, before that mighty king, ignorance and poverty, together with all their allies, take flight.

TOPIC XIII.

WHAT SHOULD BE THE NEGRO'S ATTITUDE IN POLITICS?

BY HON. GEORGE H. WHITE.

HON. GEORGE H. WHITE, LL. D.

Mr. White was born in a log cabin, located at the confluence of "Richland Branch" and "Slap Swamp" in Bladen County, North Carolina, near the line of Columbus County, remote from cities and towns. His maternal grandmother was half-Indian and his paternal grandmother was Irish, full-blood. His other admixture is facetiously described as "mostly Negro." His early boyhood was a struggle for bread and a very little butter, his schooling being necessarily neglected. He usually attended two or three months in the year. Later, by dint of toil, and saving a few dollars, he was able to secure training under Prof. D. P. Allen, President of the Whitten Normal School at Lumberton, N. C., and afterwards entered Howard University at Washington, graduating from the eclectic department in 1877. Believing that he could best serve his race and himself as an advocate of justice, he read law while taking the academic course, completing his reading under Judge William J. Clarke, of North Carolina, and was licensed to practice in all courts of that State by the Supreme Court in 1879.

Although Mr. White has won marked success in several walks of life, as lawyer, teacher and business man, it is his political achievements that have won for him not only a national reputation, but have evoked no small degree of comment from the press and diplomats of many of the countries of the old world. It is worthy of remark that up to this time, at the age of forty-nine, he has never held an appointive office, his commissions coming invariably from the hands of the sovereign people direct. He was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1880, and to the State Senate in 1884; was elected solicitor and prosecuting attorney for the second judicial district of North Carolina for four years in 1886, and for a like term in 1890; was nominated for Congress in 1894, but withdrew in the interest of harmony in his party. He made the race for Congress in 1896 and was triumphantly elected by a majority of 4,000, reversing a normal democratic majority of over 5,000--a change of fully 9,000 votes, indicating in no uncertain tone the confidence and esteem in which he was held by his friends and neighbors. He was re-elected in 1898. His services as a legislator were conscientious and valuable. At the close of his second term, he delivered a valedictory to the country, which was universally praised as the best, truest and most timely expression of the Negro's plea for equality of citizenship that ever rang through the halls of Congress. The speech was widely circulated, and was favorably commented upon by the leading newspapers of the nation.

Mr. White has accumulated quite a handsome fortune, his wealth being estimated at from $20,000 to $30,000. His personal popularity and the respect for his ability are attested by the fact that several honorary degrees have been conferred upon him by a number of the noted educational institutions of the land.

Mr. White is a thirty-third degree Mason. For six years he was Grand Master of Masons for the State of North Carolina, having filled most of the subordinate offices in that body before his elevation to the Grand Mastership.

Since his retirement from Congress, Mr. White has been engaged in the practice of law in Washington, D. C., and so favorably has he impressed his qualifications upon the bench and bar of the national capital that one of the judges publicly, and without precedent, complimented him in open court and set his methods up as an example for other lawyers who practice there. Eminent as are his abilities, Mr. White is proverbially modest. Of strong character, well-balanced mind and an unswerving sense of justice, liberal in views upon all subjects, political, social or religious, companionable in private life, unostentatious in manner of living or in the bestowal of charity, ready to sacrifice personal convenience to serve the worthy, Mr. White is indeed a typical American. The Negro people, in slavery or freedom, as serfs or citizens, offer no model more inspiring, no picture more inviting.

In presenting this subject to the public, I shall endeavor to treat it from a broad and liberal standpoint, eliminating all selfishness or individual political bias, and viewing the situation from the standpoint of an American citizen.

The first prerequisite to good government in a republic, is purity in the ballot. No stream can be pure unless its source is pure; neither can a republic hope for just and fair laws and the administration and execution of them, unless there is purity and fairness in the sources from whence these cardinal principles of government spring. Laws should be enacted for the whole people and not for individuals, races or sections--thereby securing the support and retaining the confidence of all the parts of our heterogeneous compact, to the end that a homogeneous whole may move in the same direction for the good of all concerned.

The Negroes ask for--and as a part of this republic--have a right to demand the perpetuation of these basic principles of our government. While we are young in citizenship, and admit having made many political mistakes, yet we are willing that the search-light of reason be thrown upon our acts, and a fair and impartial verdict rendered as to our conduct, when all the circumstances surrounding our variegated political history are taken into consideration. Liberated, enfranchised and turned loose among our former masters, who could not take kindly to our new citizenship, we naturally sought friendship and political alliance with those claiming to be our best friends--those who had been instrumental in obtaining our freedom. These new friends came largely from the Federal army, interspersed with many adventurers who followed in the wake of that army, seeking strange fields in which to ply their vocations. Many of these new-comers proved to be true friends to the Negro of the South and led us on and taught us as a faithful guardian would teach and care for his wards. But the great majority of them were wholly unscrupulous and worked upon the ignorance, inexperience and gullibility of the Negro, overtime, to place themselves into positions where they had unlimited sway. The result that followed was most natural--the use of public trust for private gain, the looting of many of the Southern states, the political degradation of the Negro, and the complete estrangement between him and his former neighbors. When all these things were accomplished, these human cormorants betook themselves to their Northern homes to live in ease and splendor on the results of their pillage, while the black man was left in the South to endure disfranchisement, torture and murder on account of the malice and hatred begotten from his first political experience.

Surrounded by such environments, the suppression of his right of franchise, the open and notorious examples of fraud, ballot-box stuffing and intimidation practiced in every Southern election for the last thirty years, on the one hand, and the unfaithfulness, "Jingoism," the free offering of bribes and the continued practice of duplicity, on the part of those claiming to be his friends, on the other hand, no fair-minded man would expect to find complete political perfection among a people thus treated. Thus has the Negro been obstructed, not only in politics, but his civil rights have been denied him, and the doors of many industries are closed against him.

But let us turn our faces away from all the horrors of slavery, reconstruction and all kindred wrongs which have been heaped upon us, and stand up, measuring the full statue of an American citizen, upon the threshold of the new century as a New Man. The slave who has grown out of the ashes of thirty-five years ago, is inducted into the political and social system, cast into the arena of manhood, where he constitutes a new element and becomes a competitor for all its emoluments. He is put upon trial, to test his ability to be accounted worthy of freedom, worthy of the elective franchise. After all these years of struggle against almost insurmountable odds, under conditions but little removed from slavery itself, he asks a fair and just judgment, not of those whose prejudice has endeavored to forestall--to frustrate--his every forward movement; rather those who have lent a helping hand that he might demonstrate the truth of "The fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man."

In a nation like ours, blessed with peace, plenty and full of prosperity; filled with the spirit of "Expansion," sound money and a protective tariff; when there is a disposition to forget all sectional lines, and to know no North, no South, no East, no West, but having all to stand out in bold relief as one reunited whole, when one political party slaps the other upon the shoulder with a knowing look and a smile indicating the fraternal feeling everywhere present, the question naturally comes home to every colored American, "What should be the Negro's attitude in politics?" Constituting as we do, one-eighth of the entire population of this Nation, the Negro's political attitude should be a firm stand for the right, the support of honest men for office, the advocacy of strong, pure American policies, an unceasing contention for fair elections, a pure ballot, a complete repudiation of any party or man who seeks to bribe, or in any way to hamper or degrade him politically. Should he become self-effaced, politically? No, never! He should, at all times, contend wisely, firmly for every right accorded to other American citizens under the organic laws of the nation. He should identify himself with that political party which proves to be the most friendly towards him. There is very little in a name. Results should be sought, and the Negro should never waver until they are obtained. This will necessitate a division of the Negro vote. No fixed rule can be established as a political guide for him, any more than it can be done for any other people. The location, environment, men and measures sought to be obtained, should guide him. The political pathway for the future may seem dark and discouraging, but nothing daunted, we should continue to press forward, contending for every inch of our rights--no right which man enjoys aside from his own household should be guarded more sacredly than his right of franchise--a right which makes each one a sovereign in himself; a right which determines what laws shall govern us, who shall construe them and execute them.

I am not unmindful of the fact that the views here expressed, may sound rather Utopian. But in this age of rush and bustle for place, preferment and national gain, by individuals and the nation; and in an age when anarchists, lynchers and murderers set at defiance all law and government; in an age when, in certain sections of the country, the ballot-box ceases to stand as an exponent of the registered will of the people, but stands rather as a political cesspool of reeking rottenness, impregnating the national atmosphere with germs of discord that may yet stagnate and throttle the Union; in such an age, it is quite necessary that a halt should be called; a reckoning had, and that these small, though dangerous political sores should be lanced from the body politic before they develop into putrifying cancers that will destroy the life of the republic.

From any view that may be taken of the present political situation, it is apparent that the time is ripe for the colored American to think and act for himself. If he reasons correctly, he will certainly reach the conclusion that right must some day prevail; and in order that he may enjoy the resultant blessings flowing from a pure ballot, the colored man must set the pace, and thereby place himself in a position to command respect and proper recognition. "He who would have equity must first do equity."

The Negro's loyalty to his friends, his impressionable soul, his devotion to church, his yearning for education and enlightenment, his thrift, industry, devotion to country, fidelity to the flag shown upon hundreds of battle-fields, must be admitted and command the admiration of all fair-minded men. Let him add to all these attributes, purity in all things; let him cultivate a love for justice and fair play, live as an example for his neighbors, ally himself with the best men in the community or state where he lives, and the day must certainly come when his rights--political and civil--will be conceded to him.

Let us learn what is right and then dare to do the right; ever pressing forward to higher and nobler things; never lagging, but remember, "That constant effort will remove the mountain, and that continued dripping will wear away the stone."

SECOND PAPER.

WHAT SHOULD BE THE NEGRO'S ATTITUDE IN POLITICS?

BY T. T. FORTUNE

TIMOTHY THOMAS FORTUNE.

Timothy Thomas fortune, the subject of this sketch, is an author, a journalist, an agitator and a lecturer.

Mr. Fortune's grandmother was a mulatto, and his grandfather a Seminole Indian. Thomas was born of slave parents in Florida in 1856. His father took an important and active part in the reconstruction of Florida, being a delegate in the Constitutional Convention that framed the present constitution of Florida, and a member of the first five sessions of the reconstituted Florida Legislature.

During the Ku Klux Klan period, which followed, the father 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.