Historical Romance of the American Negro

Besides, if colored men were in many cases unfit for the franchise, it was no bad thing to give it them at once anyhow, because it would stimulate the nation at large to push their complete education along, and the race themselves would now have a far more powerful motive to acquire knowledge than they had ever had before. Therefore, there was a very great deal of interest taken by the nation at large in the passage of the new amendment to the Constitution that was destined to place black men upon the self-same footing with white men. The white Republicans also considered that they were indebted to colored soldiers for the restoration of the Union to the tune of at least 200,000 brave, heroic men, and that they owed them the right to vote.

The necessary three-fourths of all the States of the Union having voted in their legislatures in favor of the passage of the new amendment to the Constitution, President Grant deemed the new measure of such vast importance that he went out of the usual mode adopted upon such occasions, and addressed the following special message on the subject to Congress, for the purpose of still further enhancing its importance in the eyes of the Senate and House of Representatives, and, in short, of the whole American people:

"SPECIAL MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT GRANT ON THE RATIFICATION OF THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT.

"To the Senate and House of Representatives:

"It is unusual to notify the two houses of Congress, by message, of the promulgation by proclamation of the Secretary of State of the ratification of a Constitutional Amendment. In view, however, of the vast importance of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution this day declared a part of the revered instrument, I deem a departure from the usual custom justifiable. A measure which makes at once four millions of people voters, who were heretofore declared by the highest tribunal in the land not citizens of the United States, nor eligible to become so (with the assertion that, at the time of the Declaration of Independence, the opinion was fixed and universal in the civilized portion of the white race, regarded as an axiom in morals as well as politics, that black men had no rights which the white man was bound to respect) is indeed a measure of grander importance than any other one act of the kind from the foundation of our free government to the present day.

"Institutions like ours, in which all power is derived directly from the people, must depend mainly upon their intelligence, patriotism, and industry. I call the attention, therefore, of the newly-enfranchised race to the importance of their new privilege. To the race more favored heretofore by our laws, I would say, withhold no legal privilege of advancement to the new citizen. The framers of our Constitution firmly believed that a republican government could not endure without intelligence and education generally diffused among the people. The 'Father of his country,' in his farewell address, uses this language, 'Promote, then, as a matter of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of the government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.' In his first annual message to Congress, the same views are forcibly presented, and are again urged in his eighth message.

"I repeat that the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution completes the greatest civil change and constitutes the most important event that has occurred since the nation came into life. The change will be beneficial in proportion to the need that is given to the urgent recommendations of Washington. If these recommendations were important then, with a population of but a few millions, how much more now with a population of forty millions, and increasing in rapid ratio.

"I would therefore call upon Congress to take all the means within their Constitutional power to promote and encourage popular education throughout the country; and upon the people everywhere to see to it that all who possess and exercise political rights shall have the opportunity to acquire the knowledge which will make their share in the government a blessing and not a danger. By such means only can the benefits contemplated by this amendment to the Constitution be secured.

"Executive Mansion, March 30, 1870.

"U. S. GRANT."

On account of the vast importance of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and its direct bearing upon the elevation of the colored race, and the immediate amelioration of their condition, I will here append the certificate of Mr. Secretary Fish respecting ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, March 30, 1870:

"Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State of the United States.

"To all to whom these presents may come, greeting,

"Know ye that the Congress of the United States, on or about the 27th day of February, in the year 1869, passed a resolution in the words and figures following, to wit:

"A resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

"Resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two thirds of both houses concurring,) That the following article be proposed to the legislature, shall be valid as part of the Constitution, namely,

"Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

"Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

"And, Further, that it appears, from official documents on file in this department, that the amendment to the Constitution of the United States, proposed as aforesaid, has been ratified by the legislatures of the States of North Carolina, West Virginia, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Maine, Louisiana, Michigan, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, New York, New Hampshire, Nevada, Vermont, Virginia, Alabama, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Nebraska, and Texas, in all, twenty-nine States.

"And, Further, that the States whose legislatures have so ratified the said proposed amendment constitute three-fourths of the whole number of States in the United States.

"And, Further, that it appears, from an official document on file in this department, that the legislature of the State of New York has since passed resolutions claiming to withdraw the said ratification of the said amendment, which had been made by the legislature of that State, and of which official notice had been filed in the department.

"And, Further, that it appears from an official document on file in this department, that the legislature of Georgia has by resolution ratified the said proposed amendment.

"Now, therefore, be it known, that I, Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State of the United States, by virtue and in pursuance of the Second Section of the Act of Congress, approved the 20th day of April, 1818, entitled, An act to provide for the publication of the Laws of the United States, and for other purposes, do hereby certify that the amendment aforesaid has become valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of the Constitution of the United States.

"In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the Department of State to be affixed.

"Done at the City of Washington, this 20th day of March, in the year of our Lord, eighteen hundred and seventy; and of the Independence of the United States the ninety-fourth.

"SEAL.

"HAMILTON FISH."

Thus, as will be seen above, the ever-glorious Fifteenth Amendment became a part of the American Constitution, and the same was made known to the remotest bounds of the Republic.

"Arise, shine forth, for thy light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon thee!" Such is the language of Holy Scripture, and it expresses well the sudden outburst of the joy that filled the hearts of the entire colored race when the Fifteenth Amendment became the law of the land. Then, indeed, did the colored soldier feel that he had a country, and that he had not fought and bled in vain for the cause of freedom and the Union! Then did all colored men and women feel, indeed, that they were men and women among other full-fledged citizens of the United States! Then did they feel, in the celebrated words of Robert Burns, the Scotch poet, that "An honest man, though e'er so poor, is king of men for all that!" If the Emancipation Proclamation called forth a tremendous flood of thankfulness and gratitude, if even the fall of Richmond and the freeing of the last slave called for shouts of joy and rejoicing, much more – yea, ten times more – did the publication of the Fifteenth Amendment exercise the entire redeemed race from the very bottom of their hearts! Their forefathers had been stolen away from Africa; they had been brought here. This was their home, such as it was. They had no other country but the United States. Now, the new amendment to the Constitution had put the right to vote into their hands, the same as others – just the same as others, and they most loyally sent up a shout of joy that reached from Maine to the Rio Grande river, and that shout arose to Heaven and entered into the ears of the celestials.

Where, now, was the doctrine, indeed, "That the descendants of the African race had no rights that a white man was bound to respect?" Who ever gave "the white man" the right to use such language, unless it was wickedly presumed by his own presumptuous and lying arrogance? The white race only compose a small portion of the human race. According to tradition, Adam was as brown as a bun; and certainly our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ must have been a very dark-complexioned man? Does anybody mean to say that Adam and the Lord Jesus had no right to be respected because they were as brown as a bun in complexion? Like the so-called "divine right of kings," such language was nothing but a wilful and deliberate falsehood, for the entire race of man have rights to be respected – the one as much as the other. How passeth away the glory of this world! Behold your millions of people gloriously set free, and after a long and fearful war pronounced full-fledged citizens, even as others! If the ransomed race formerly rejoiced when they felt their bodily chains fall off, much more did they rejoice when they were invested with the same rights as the rest of the American nation, and could vote like the freemen that they were! It is true that in the sight of God and all justice (both divine and human) they were always men, they had always rights that other men were bound to respect, but now we had the full confession of those rights from all the rest of our own compatriots, who fully and freely admitted, that all their rights were ours also and justice, though long delayed, was done at last!

The colored people were now in full possession of their political rights for the first time, and many new things happened that passed for a great wonder in the history of the nation. Hiram B. Revels took his seat as United States Senator for Mississippi on the 25th of February, 1870. It was from the self-same State that Jefferson Davis hailed, for he was Senator for Mississippi until he resigned his seat and went out with the rest of the rebels. Nine brief years had passed away; for four and a half years the civil war had raged; the curse of slavery had disappeared from the land, and now came Hiram B. Revels from Mississippi, from which the head of the Southern Confederacy had come in former days! Most assuredly this was the Lord's work, and it was wondrous in our eyes!

It was just one year from the day and hour when Senator Revels took his seat in the United States Senate that Jefferson F. Long, also a colored man, was sworn in as a member of the House of Representatives from the State of Georgia – the State of Alexander H. Stephens, who had been vice-president of the late Confederate States! It was that same Stephens who had put forth the idea in a speech of his own immediately after he was made vice-president, that slavery should be the corner-stone of the new government of Secessia!

Then the United States Government sent E. D. Bassett, a colored man from Pennsylvania, as Minister-Resident and Consul-General to the Republic of Hayti, in the West Indies. This was carrying things on at quite a lively rate, indeed. Nor was this all. President Grant then turned around, and sent J. Milton Turner, a colored man from Missouri, as Minister-Resident and Consul-General to the Republic of Liberia, in Western Africa. It is true that Hayti and Liberia are not nations of the first rank in power and population, but they are at least as respectable as any, and the time must yet come when ambassadors of the colored race will be appointed to the first nations on earth. President Grant was at least making a good beginning, and as he had been a soldier, like the lion, he had nothing to fear!

About this time Frederick Douglass had been made a Presidential Elector for the great Empire State of New York, and he helped to cast the vote for that State for General Grant upon his election for the second term, in 1872. Times were indeed mightily changed with Frederick Douglass since he was a young man, and fled away from Baltimore in the disguise of a sailor, passing through New York City, which was then almost as much opposed to freedom of the slaves as the State of Georgia.

Well does the English poet say, "Slavery there has lost the day!" The ballot was now in the hands of the colored man as well as others. He had tilled the fertile soil of the United States for two hundred and fifty years; he had now lent a vigorous hand in three wars, and had completely won his right and title to full-fledged citizenship, with all the honors and powers that it carries with it. All Abolitionists and true-hearted Republicans rejoiced at the spectacle, whilst the late arch-rebels and others of that ilk were depressed at the changes!

CHAPTER XIV

Joyful Demonstrations Over the Fifteenth Amendment – Processions in all the Cities of the Land – Departure for Louisville, Ky. – The Journey Thither – The River Ohio – Great Celebration – The Week at Louisville – The Return to Buffalo.

My dear, kind reader, as I have already indicated, the eventful year of 1870 had come, and the Fifteenth Amendment had become the law of the land. From Maine to Texas, from the wild Atlantic waves to the Coast of the Pacific Ocean, the entire colored race abandoned themselves to the most unbounded demonstration of joy and delight. I never saw the tide of delight running so high either before or since, as upon this most august occasion. Great mass-meetings, immense processions, music, dancing, religious meetings for sacred song, prayer and praise were the order of the night and of the day. Indeed, there was no outward form of joy and rejoicing that can either be conceived or described, that was not observed upon this glorious occasion. We read in the Book of Esther about the joy of the whole Jewish nation, when they were all saved by the Lord from the wicked plots and schemes of the evil-minded Haman – the Jew's enemy. So great, indeed, was the impression produced upon the heart of God's ancient people that the feast of Purim is still kept up in commemoration of that terrible crisis through which all Israel had to pass. We ourselves – the colored race in America – had had our experiences in times past, as bad or worse than the Israelites of old. It was now five full years since the close of the war; we had had five years of national freedom; slavery here had lost the day; we could now vote like any other race, and therefore the free exercise of the self-same power was placed in our hands; the spring of 1870 was come, when the entire colored race abandoned themselves to singing, dancing and rejoicing in all ways in general; and, indeed, they had good cause and the right to rejoice, for they had waited a long time for it, and their patience had been sorely tried. Justice was long in coming, but it came at last.

In all the larger towns and cities of the United States, both North and South, immense processions were organized and carried out in the greatest and grandest perfection. It struck me as a truly wonderful thing at the time that the Democratic and rebel element that were so rank and strong even in former days in the North did not take mortal offense at such out-and-out demonstrations, carried out with such a high hand before the noon-day sun!

But our people were discreet, and neither said nor did anything purposely to cause any reasonable person to take offense. Of course, they stood upon their rights, and they claimed their rights of way as much as others, but all the same their lawful demonstration of joy and rejoicing went with a most tremendous swing, and nothing was done by anybody to mar the exultation of the grand occasion. So far as the Republicans were concerned, and all the brave old Abolition school, and every one of that ilk, they were well pleased to see the happy consummation of all their labors and toils.

I do not wonder so much that this tremendous colored demonstration passed off without opposition in the North, but what was really surprising was that the processions and other demonstrations of joy in the cities of the South, in honor of the Fifteenth Amendment, should not have brought on opposition, conflicts and riots. In brief, the entire white race, over all the land, submitted to the inevitable; they submitted to the results of the war. Their consciences at least bore witness that neither race nor color, nor previous condition make men nor unmake them; that one man is as much of a man as another in a general sense, and that the colored race had fought for their equal rights, and deserved them, and all seemed now willing to live in peace.

As we heard that a very great demonstration was to be made at Louisville, Ky., in honor of the Fifteenth Amendment, and as my beloved mother, Tom and myself had been longing for a long time past for a sight of the dear old place upon the Kentucky shore, where we had all been born and brought up, we determined to take the girls and go along to the celebration, and Mr. Sutherland also consented to accompany us. He had never been in Kentucky, and so anticipated that it would be a great treat to him.

It was a fine morning in the spring when we took the road for the railway station, and soon we found ourselves all seated in the train. Mr. Sutherland and the girls were in a great way about going to Kentucky, and the girls had so long desired to see it once more. Ever since they awoke in the morning they had been humming and singing "The Old Kentucky Shore!" Nay, they even played it on the piano, and sang to their own accompaniments. Thus the whole house was ringing that early morning with the sounds of music. But to those of us who were older the children's hilarity, music and song brought other thoughts, for we were no longer children. Many dear old slave ditties had been sung about Kentucky, which was a slave State, as the dear reader knows very well. Thousands of fugitives had escaped over the river Ohio, which bounds all her northern line. Indeed, runaway slaves from States further south usually made for this river, and made their escapes into the free States of the North. Even my own dear Tom and I had made our escape over this river, and my own dear mother had been carried down and over its waters on her way to the Sunny South.

Thus our feelings that morning were rather conflicting. Mr. Sutherland and the girls seemed best off, for there were no dark shadows in the immediate past to cloud their brows, like mother, Tom and myself. But all clouds passed away sooner or later, and we happily forgot our old-time experiences in the pleasantness of the new day, the bright and warming sunlight, and even the joyous surroundings that were all around about us on our happy way. The girls having bought a couple of bright new picture books from the book-stand at the depot while we were securing our tickets, all things were now in readiness for our departure. We took our seats in a very contented and flowery state of mind at last, and our brave iron horse set out for the open road along the shores of Lake Erie, and soon we had left the city of Buffalo behind us. The dark shadows of the early morning had indeed departed altogether, and our eyes and thoughts were fixed upon the beautiful country as we flew past, and on the shining waters of Lake Erie, till we came to Cleveland, Ohio. Here we left the lake, and switched away towards the southwest of Columbus, the capital of this State. The rest of us had been over this ground before, as the dear reader will remember; but all was new ground to mother and Mr. Sutherland, who now greatly admired the beauties of the State of Ohio, adorned in all the charms of spring, and with all its fine woods and forests arrayed in their new mantle of green, that set off the beauties of the hills and dales in great perfection. And whatever our thoughts and feelings might otherwise have been, on one point we were all united – we were going back to our dear old Kentucky shore, and the city of Louisville, to behold the glorious celebration of the Fifteenth Amendment to the American Constitution, and to such an outpouring of the colored race as had never been seen in Kentucky. That, indeed, made our hearts light; that was joy enough for all.

In due time we reached Columbus, the capital of the State, as nice a little country city as ever I saw. Here a small contingent of our own beloved people came on board the train for Cincinnati and Louisville. They were in a state of high excitement over the forthcoming events. Some of them, no doubt, had fled away from the curse and chains of slavery in Kentucky, and more remote States; but now they could return without fear. "Slavery there had lost the day!"

Continuing our journey, we all reached Cincinnati in safety, a fine city, of which Mr. and Mrs. Sutherland often heard, but had never seen; and they were quite captivated with its beauty, reposing so sweetly on the hills that line the northern banks of the "beautiful river," as the French discoverers delighted to call it. With what wonder and delight did Mr. and Mrs. Sutherland behold the beautiful hills and dells of Kentucky, just across the mighty stream! Mrs. Sutherland had of course seen the Ohio at Riverside, and all the way down to the Mississippi, but it was the first time her husband had seen the beautiful river of the Frenchmen, or even slave land, and it produced in his mind mingled feelings of pain and pleasure to behold it, for though born free himself, his forefathers had fled across the Ohio river as they made their escape from the South.

We decided to spend a night at sweet Cincinnati, where we paid a visit to A. M. E. Church parsonage, where my beloved Tom and I put up when we were married at the church there, and what was our surprise and joy to find the very same family there, the self-same reverend gentleman having been called back for a second time. What kissing, embracing and joy there was between the two families upon this happy, happy reunion! Heaven alone can tell, my dear reader, how very much good this meeting did us all. My goodness! this poor pen of mine is altogether unequal to the task. It was indeed a heavenly union!

There being a class that night at the dear, dear church, after tea, we all went along with the pastor and his family and had a glorious time, where we praised the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever. Many old friends remembered us still, and gave us a warm welcome. O Christianity! Christianity! What joys has this world like them?

After this grand meeting was over, we all made our way to the private quarters, which we had engaged for the night, and where we had a most refreshing sleep. We were all quite amused with the girls, for they were worse than wild birds for sheer delight. The fine weather and the great events in the immediate future were mighty stimulants. Indeed the whole of us were completely carried away by our feelings, and we ran the city and suburbs of Cincinnati in all directions, our private boarding-house being our rendezvous at three o'clock in the afternoon, so that we could all start together for the boat that was to leave an hour or two later for Louisville.

It is a remarkable thing how rapidly some people become acquainted. By the time we had spent some twenty-four hours with the kind people at the boarding-house, we were almost as fond of one another as if we had been brought up together. Some of them even accompanied us to the Public Landing, where we were to embark for Louisville. I don't know what the neighbors along the street thought of us, for we were more excited and exultant and louder than a lot of barn-yard fowl, with laughing and one thing and another! Well, it was a time for laughing, I think, and after two hundred and fifty years of slavery, I also think we had a right to laugh, and to laugh with all our might and main!