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Should the question be asked "how did the
American Negroes act in the Spanish-American war?" the
foregoing brief account of their conduct would furnish a
satisfactory answer to any fair mind. In testimony of their
valiant conduct we have the evidence first, of competent eye
witnesses; second, of men of the white race; and third, not
only white race, but men of the Southern white race, in
America, whose antipathy to the Negro "with a gun" is well
known, it being related of the great George Washington, who,
withal, was a slave owner, but mild in his views as to the
harshness of that system--that on his dying bed he called
out to his good wife: "Martha, Martha, let me charge you,
dear, never to trust a 'nigger' with a gun." Again we have
the testimony of men high in authority, competent to judge,
and whose evidence ought to be received. Such men as General
Joseph Wheeler, Colonel Roosevelt, General Miles, President
McKinley. If on the testimony of such witnesses as these we
have not "established our case," there must be something
wrong with the jury. A good case has been established,
however, for the colored soldier, out of the mouth of many
witnesses. The colored troopers just did so well that praise
could not be withheld from them even by those whose
education and training had bred in them prejudice against
Negroes. It can no longer be doubted that the Negro soldier
will fight. In fact such has been their record in past wars
that no scruples should have been entertained on this point,
but the (late) war was a fresh test, the result of which
should be enough to convince the most incredulous "Doubting
Thomases."
The greater portion of the American people have confidence
in the Negro soldier. This confidence is not misplaced--the
American government can, in the South, organize an army of
Negro soldiers that will defy the combined forces of any
nation of Europe. The Negro can fight in any climate, and
does not succumb to the hardships of camp life. He makes a
model soldier and is well nigh invincible.
The Negro race has a right to be proud of the achievements
of the colored troopers in the late Spanish-American war.
They were the representatives of the whole race in that
conflict; had they failed it would have been a calamity
charged up to the whole race. The race's enemies would have
used it with great effect. They did not fail, but did their
duty nobly--a thousand hurrahs for the colored troopers of
the Spanish-American war!
In considering their successful achievements, however, it is
well to remember that there were some things the Negro had
to forget while facing Spanish bullets. The Negro soldier in
bracing himself for that conflict must needs forget the
cruelties that daily go on against his brethren under that
same flag he faces death to defend; he must forget that when
he returns to his own land he will be met not as a citizen,
but as a serf in that part of it, at least, where the
majority of his people live; he must forget that if he
wishes to visit his aged parents who may perhaps live in
some of the Southern States, he must go in a "Jim Crow" car;
and if he wants a meal on the way, he could only get it in
the kitchen, as to insist on having it in the dining room
with other travelers, would subject him to mob violence; he
must forget that the flag he fought to defend in Cuba does
not protect him nor his family at home; he must forget the
murder of Frazier B. Baker, who was shot down in cold blood,
together with his infant babe in its mother's arms, and the
mother and another child wounded, at Lake City, S.C, for no
other offense than attempting to perform the duties of
Postmaster at that place--a position given him by President
McKinley; he must forget also the shooting of Loftin, the
colored Postmaster at Hagansville, Ga., who was guilty of no
crime, but being a Negro and holding, at that place, the
Post office, a position given him by the government; he must
forget the Wilmington MASSACRE in which some forty or fifty
colored people were shot down by men who had organized to
take the government of the city in charge by force of the
Winchester--where two lawyers and a half dozen or more
colored men of business, together with such of their white
friends as were thought necessary to get rid of, were
banished from the city by a mob, and their lives threatened
in the event of their return--all because they were in the
way as Republican voters-"talked too much" or did not halt
when so ordered by some members of the mob; they must forget
the three hundred Negroes who were the victims of mob
violence in the United States during the year 1898; they
must forget that the government they fought for in Cuba is
powerless to correct these evils, and does not correct them.
Why the American Government does not Protect its Colored
Citizens
Is due to the peculiar and complicated construction of the
laws relating to States Rights. The power to punish
for crimes against citizens of the different States is given
by construction of the Constitution of the United States to
the courts of the several States. The Federal authorities
have no jurisdiction unless the State has passed some law
abridging the rights of citizens, or the State government
through its authorized agents is unable to protect its
citizens, and has called on the national government for aid
to that end, or some United States official is molested in
the discharge of his duty. Under this subtle construction of
the Constitution a citizen who lives in a State whose public
opinion is hostile becomes a victim of whatever prejudice
prevails, and, although the laws may in the letter, afford
ample protection, yet those who are to execute them rarely
do so in the face of a hostile public sentiment; and thus
the Negroes who live in hostile communities become the
victims of public sentiment. Juries may be drawn, and trials
may be had, but the juries are usually white, and are also
influenced in their verdicts by that sentiment which
declares that "this is a white man's government," and a
mistrial follows. In many instances the juries are willing
to do justice, but they can feel the pressure from the
outside, and in some instance the jurors chosen to try the
cases were members of the mob, as in the case of the
coroner's jury at Lake City.
It is the duty of a State Governor, when he finds public
sentiment dominating the courts and obstructing justice, to
interfere, and in case he cannot succeed with the sheriff
and posse comitatus, then to invoke National aid. But this
step has never yet been taken by any Governor of the States
in the interest of Negro citizenship. Some of the State
Governors have made some demonstration by way of threats of
enforcing the law against those who organize mobs and take
the law into their own hands; and some of the mob murderers
have been brought to trial, which in most cases, has
resulted in an acquittal for the reason that juries have as
aforestated, chosen to obey public sentiment, which is not
in favor of punishing white men for lynching Negroes, rather
than obey the law; and cases against the election laws and
for molesting United States officials have to be tried in
the district where these offences occur, and the juries
being in sympathy with the criminals, usually acquit, or
there is a mistrial because they cannot all agree.
That mobocracy is supreme in many parts of the Union is no
longer a mooted question. It is a fact; and one that
forebodes serious consequences, not only to the Negro but to
any class of citizens who may happen to come into disfavor
with some other class.
What The Negro Should do under such circumstances must be
left to the discretion of the individuals concerned. Some
advise emigration, but that is impracticable, en masse,
unless some suitable place could be found where any
considerable number might go, and not fare worse. The
colored people will eventually leave those places where they
are maltreated, but "whether it is better to suffer the ills
we now bear than flee to those we know not of," is the
question. The prevailing sentiment among the masses seems to
be to remain for the present, where they are, and through
wise action, and appeals to the Court of Enlightened
Christian Sentiment, try to disarm the mob. There is no
doubt a class of white citizens who regret such occurrences,
and from their natural horror of bloodshed, and looking to
the welfare and reputation of the communities in which such
outrages occur, and feeling that withal the Negro makes a
good domestic and farm hand, will, and do counsel against
mob violence. In many places where mobs have occurred such
white citizens have been invaluable aids in saving the lives
of Negroes from mob violence; and trusting that these
friends will increase and keep up their good work the Negro
has seldom ever left the scene of mob violence in any
considerable numbers, the home ties being strong, and he
instinctively loves the scene of his birth. He loves the
white men who were boys with him, whose faces he has smiled
in from infancy, and he would rather not sever those
friendly ties. A touching incident is related in reference
to a colored man in a certain town where a mob was murdering
Negroes right and left, who came to the door of his place of
business, and seeing the face of a young white man whom he
had known from his youth, asked protection home to his wife
and five children; the reply came with an oath, "Get back
into that house or I will put a bullet into you." The day
before this these two men had been "good friends," had
"exchanged cigars"-but the orders of the mob were stronger
in this instance than the ties of long years of close
friendship. Another instance, though, will show how the mob
could not control the ties of friendship of the white for
the black. It was the case of a colored man who was
blacklisted by a mob in a certain city, and fled to the home
of a neighboring white friend who kept him in his own house
for several days until escape was possible, and in the
meantime, summoned his white neighbors to guard the black
man's family-threatening to shoot down the first member of
the mob who should enter the gate, because, as he said, "you
have no right to frighten that woman and her children to
death." Such acts as this assures to the Negroes in places
where feeling runs against them that perhaps they may be
fortunate enough to escape the violence of this terrible
race hatred that is now running riot in this country. In
this connection it is well to remark that kindness will win
in the long run with the Negro Race, and make them the white
man's friend. Georgia and those States where Negroes are
being burned are sowing to the wind and will ere long reap
the whirlwind in the matter of race hatred. Criminal
assaults were not characteristic of the Negro in the days of
slavery, because as a rule there was friendship between
master and slave-the slave was too fond of his master's
family but to do otherwise than protect it; but the
situation is changed-instead of kindness the Negro sees
nothing but rebuff on every hand; he feels himself a hated
and despised race without country or protection anywhere,
and the brute-spirit rises in those, who, by their make-up
and training, cannot keep it down-then follows murder,
outrage, rape. It is true that only a few do these things,
but those few are the natural products of the Southern
system of oppression and the wonder is, when the question is
viewed philosophically, that there are so few. The
conclusion here reached is that Georgia will not get rid of
her brutes by burning them and taking the charred embers
home as relics, but rather by treating her Negro population
with more kindness and showing them that there is some hope
for Negro citizenship in that State. The Negroes know that
white men have been known to rape colored girls, but that
never has there been a suggestion of lynching or burning for
that, and they feel despondent, for they know the courts are
useless in such cases, and this jug-handle enforcement of
lynch law is breeding its own bad fruits on the Negro race
as well as making more brutal the whites. My advice, then,
to our white friends is to try kindness as a remedy for rape
in the South, and I am convinced of the force of this remedy
from what I know of the occurrence of assaults and murders
in those States where the Negroes are made to feel that they
are citizens and are at home.
What Courage! What an Example of Faithfulness to
Duty
Did the colored troopers exhibit in forgetting all these
shortcomings to themselves and race of their own government
when they made those daring charges on San Juan and El
Caney!! They were possessed with large hearts and sublime
courage. How they fought under such circumstances, none but
a divine tongue can answer. It was a miracle, and was
performed, no doubt, that good might come to the race in the
shape of the testimonials given them as appears heretofore
in this book. Their deeds must live in history as an honor
to the Negro Race. Let them be taught to the children. Let
it be said that the Negro soldier did his duty under the
flag, whether that flag protects him or not. The white
soldier fought under no such sad reflections--he did not,
after a hard-fought battle, lie in the trenches at night and
dream of his aged mother and father being run out of their
little home into the wintry blasts by a mob who sought to
"string them up" for circulating literature relating to the
party of Wm. McKinley--the President of the United
States--this was the colored soldiers' dream, but he swore
to protect the flag and he did it. The colored soldier has
been faithful to his trust; let others be the same. If
Negroes who have other trusts to perform, do their duty as
well as the colored soldiers, there will be many revisions
in the scale of public sentiment regarding the Negro Race in
America--many arguments will be overthrown and the heyday
towards Negro citizenship will begin to dawn--there are
other battles than those of the militia.
The Solution of the Problem is Mainly in the Race's own
Hands
They must climb up themselves with such assistance as they
can get. The race has done well in thirty years of freedom,
but it could have done better; banking on the progress
already made the next thirty years will no doubt show
greater improvement than the past--TIME, TIME, TIME, which
some people seem to take so little into account, will be the
great adjuster of all such problems in the future as it has
been in the past. Many children of the white fathers of the
present day will read the writing of their parents and
wonder at their short-sightedness in attempting to fix the
metes and bounds of the American Negro's status. We feel
reluctant to prophesy, but this much we do say, that fifty
years from now will show a great change in the Negro's
condition in America, and many of those who now predict his
calamity will be classed with the fools who said before the
Negro was emancipated that they would all perish within ten
years for lack of ability to feed and clothe themselves. The
complaint now with many of those who oppose the Negro is not
because he lacks ability, but rather because he uses too
much and sometimes gets the situation that they want. This
is pre-eminently so from a political standpoint and the
reported arguments used to stir the poorer class of whites
to rally against the Negroes in Wilmington during the
campaign just before the late Massacre there in the fall of
1898, was a recital by impassioned orators of the fact that
Negroes had pianos and servants in their houses, and lace
curtains to their windows-this outburst being followed by
the question, "How many of you white men can afford to have
them?" So as to the problem of the Negro's imbibing the
traits of civilization, that point is settled by what he has
already done, and the untold obstacles which are being
constantly put in his way by those who fear his competition.
The question then turns not so much on what shall be done
with the Negro as upon What shall be done with the white men
who are so filled with prejudice that neither law nor
religion restrains their bloody hands when the Negro refuses
to get into what he calls "his place," which place is that
of a menial; and often there seems no effort even to put the
Negro in any particular place save the grave, as many of the
lynchings and murders appear to be done either for the fun
of shooting someone, or else with extermination in view.
There is no attempt at a show of reason or right. The mob
spirit is growing--prejudice is more intense. Formerly it
was confined to the rabble, now it has taken hold of those
of education, and standing. Red shirts have entered the
pulpits, and it is a matter boasted of rather than
condemned--the South is not the only scene of such outrages.
Prejudice is not confined to one section, but is no doubt
more intense in the Southern State, and more far-reaching in
its effects, because it is there that the Negroes, by reason
of the large numbers in proportion to the other inhabitants,
come into political competition with the whites who revolt
at the idea of Negro officers, whether they are elected by a
majority of citizens or not. The whites seem bent on
revolution to prevent the force and effect of Negro
majorities. Whether public sentiment will continue to
endorse these local revolutions is the question that can be
answered only by time. Just so long as the Negro's
citizenship is written in the Constitution and he believes
himself entitled to it, just so long will he seek to
exercise it. The white man's revolution will be needed every
now and then to beat back the Negro's aspirations with the
Winchester. The Negro race loves progress, it is fond of
seeing itself elevated, it loves office for the honor it
brings and the emoluments thereof, just as other progressive
races do. It is not effete, looking back to Confucius; it is
looking forward; it does not think its best days have been
in the past, but that they are yet to come in the future; it
is a hopeful race, teachable race; a race that absorbs
readily the arts and accomplishments of civilization; a race
that has made progress in spite of mountains of obstacles; a
race whose temperament defied the worst evils of slavery,
both African and American; a race of great vitality, a race
of the future, a race of destiny.
In closing this resume of this little work it is proper that
I should warn the younger members of the race against
despondency, and against the looseness of character and
habits that is singularly consequential of a despondent
spirit. Do not be discouraged, give up, and throw away
brilliant intellects, because of seeming obstacles, but
rather resolve to Be Something and Do Something in Spite
of Obstacles.
"It was not by tossing feather balls into the air that the
great Hercules gained his strength, but by hurling huge
boulders from mountain tops 'that his name became the
synonym of manly strength.' So the harder the struggle the
greater the discipline and fitness. If we cannot reach
success in one way, let us try another. 'If the mountain
will not come to Mahomet let Mahomet go to the mountain.'"
The South Is A Good Place For The Negro To Live, provided,
however, the better class of citizens will rise up and
demand that lynching's and mobs shall cease, and that the
officers of the law shall do their duty without prejudice.
The only way to suppress mob violence is to make punishment
for the leaders in it, sure and certain. The reason we have
mobs is because the leaders of them know they will not be
punished. The enforcement of the law against lynchers will
break it up.
The white ministers should take up the cause of justice
rather than endorse the red shirts, or carry a Winchester
themselves. They should be the counselors of peace and not
the advocates of bloodshed. Most of them, no doubt, do
regret the terrible deeds committed by mobs on helpless and
innocent people, but it is a question as to whether or not
they would be suffered by public sentiment to "cry aloud"
against them. It takes moral courage to face any evil, but
it must be faced or dire consequences will follow of its own
breeding. Our last word then, is an appeal to our Brothers
in White, in the pulpit, that they should rally the people
together for justice and; condemn mob violence. The Negroes
do not ask social equality, but civil equality; let the
false notions that confound civil rights with social rights
be dispelled, and advocate the civil equality of all men,
and the problem will be solved.
Edmund Burke says that "war never leaves where it found a
nation." applying this to the American nation with respect
to the Negro it is to be hoped that the late war will leave
a better feeling toward him, especially in view of the
glorious record of the Negro soldiers who participated in
that conflict.
History of Negro Soldiers in the Spanish-American War, and other items of Interest, 1899