Reconstruction

by Brooks D. Simpson

  In 1868 in its national platform upon which President Grant was first elected it denied the right of the Federal Government to control the suffrage of the loyal States, and declared as a fundamental principle that the control of it belonged exclusively to the people of the several States. Before the President was inaugurated, in January, 1869, a distinguished member of this House from the State of Massachusetts, afterward Secretary of the Treasury, and now a Senator of the United States in the Senate, reported by the direction of a majority of the Judiciary Committee of the House in favor of the enforcement of universal suffrage by the Federal Government. He enforced his views by a lengthy and impassioned speech, urging the conferring of suffrage upon the colored man almost upon party grounds alone. He assured the House and the country that it was “the last of the series of great measures ” with which the “republican party was charged” for the pacification of the country and for the establishment of the institutions of the country upon the broadest possible basis of “republican equality both State and national.” And his main argument was based upon the fact that this measure would add one hundred and fifty thousand votes to the republican party—enumerating the number from the several States, and appealing to his party to know if they were going to decline the services of one hundred and fifty thousand men “who are ready to battle for us at the ballot-box in favor of human rights.”

  This is the sordid, selfish appeal that has been made upon this negro question from the beginning. Not his interest, not the interest of the Republic, not the great interest of patriotism and humanity, but the interest of the republican party.

  One hundred and fifty thousand men stand ready to do battle for us, for our party, for the republican party ; and can we decline the tempting offer ? They may be ignorant of the first principles of government—unable to read, write, or even to speak and understand any intelligible language—unqualified in every respect according to the requirements of our system; they may endanger the Republic, jeopardize our most cherished institutions, drag down and degrade the white race, injure and destroy the colored race by bringing the two races into fatal collision; but it will add one hundred and fifty thousand votes to our party. These are the considerations, the controlling considerations of the past upon this subject, and such are the motives for further agitation for civil and social rights and social equality of the races. In these motives and in this spirit your civil-rights bills and all like measures have their origin and growth. They are the pandering of party to the ignorance, conceits, unreasoning ambitions, untrained and selfish instincts of the least advanced and spoiled portion of the negro race. The better class, the most thoughtful, those who are really capable of understanding some thing of the situation and condition of affairs, are beginning to see through these schemes and machinations of their pretended friends. They see the folly and danger of these measures—of pressing the demands of the lowest portion of the race for place and position without preparation, without qualification, and against the prejudice which is more because of this ignorance and unfitness than any other repugnance which may be felt. They comprehend the situation so far, at least, as to understand that the demand for further recognition and “the protection of their civil rights ” comes from those the least competent to understand or appreciate what has been done for them or the rights they now may enjoy. They understand that the clamor for civil rights comes from the most ignorant and dissolute, the dishonest, scheming politician of their own race, instigated by the unprincipled “carpet-bagger,” “scalawag,” and “pot-house” politician, who would make merchandise of all the rights of the colored race and of their bodies and souls, if thereby they could keep themselves in control of place and power. The most intelligent and worthy of the black race are grateful and contented that so much has been done for them, and that with so many favorable surroundings their destiny is in their own hands. They have sense enough to comprehend, in some degree at least, the solemnity and greatness of the work of self-government under even the most favorable circumstances, and, knowing that immunities and privileges imply obligations and duties, would not force themselves forward without preparation. The colored race in this country have opportunities such as no other race or people in the history of the world ever had.

  The chains of slavery wherewith they were bound are broken and removed, and the whole people placed at once, by the race that held them in bondage, upon terms of perfect, absolute equality with themselves. They are not only in the enjoyment of all that freedom itself can give, but the lights of the highest civilization are shining upon them, and the examples of refinement, education, patriotism, and progress—the development of centuries—are before and around them, to guide and exalt their aspirations. If there be anything of them; if they have in them the elements of growth, civilization, and greatness; if in the economy of the Almighty they are or are to be capable of self-government and the comprehension and appreciation of the great principles of civil liberty and republican government—nothing on earth is now in their way. They start from vantage-ground—with everything to stimulate, inspire, and guide them.

  The law has done all it can accomplish for them. So far as the law is concerned, the black man is in all respects the equal of the white. He stands and may make the race of life upon terms of perfect equality with the most favored citizen. There is no right, privilege, or immunity secured to any citizen of the Republic that is not confirmed to the colored. There is no court, no tribunal, no judicial jurisdiction, no remedy, no means of any sort in the land, provided by law for the redress of wrongs or the protection of the rights of life, liberty, or property of the white man that is not equally open and available to the black man. The broad panoply of the Constitution and the whole body of laws, civil and criminal, and every means provided for their enforcement, cover and extend to every American citizen, without regard to color or previous condition. The white man may with no more legal impunity trench upon or invade the dominion of the black man’s rights than the black man may the white man’s. The barriers of laws surrounding and protecting them are the same. There is no distinction, no exception, no immunity in favor of the white race. And let it never be forgotten that voluntarily, in the pride and majesty of its power, the white race has thus far done it all. With sublime indifference and disregard of all natural and conventional differences, if not with sublime wisdom and discretion, the LIBERATOR, the white race, decreed and proclaimed to the world that his former slave, the negro race, whatever he may have been or may become, is henceforth and forever shall be under the law of the Republic a co-citizen and an equal. He may compete for any office; he may contest any citizen; he may aspire to any position; he is eligible to the most exalted place in the Republic.

  And, sir, what would gentlemen, what would the greatest patriot, the greatest philanthropist, have more? What would the intelligent negro, the man best capable of comprehending the wants, the necessities, the highest good of his own race, ask for more? The common-law rights of both are the same. Both are equal in its protection. White and black may alike invoke its interposition for the protection of rights and the redress of wrongs. If equality, exact and impartial equality, of legal rights and legal remedies is desired, it is now enjoyed alike by both. If you would not place one race above the other; if you would make no distinction “on account of race or color or previous condition;” if you would have the recent amendments to the Constitution impartially administered; if you would have the laws of the land throughout its length and breadth, in their application to the citizen, take no note of the color of his skin or the race from which he sprang, let the “common law” remain unchanged; let there not be one law for the white man and another for the black man. No change, no distinction in favor of the one or the other can fail to injure both.

  To make the colored citizen feel that he is the pet, the especial favorite of the law, will only feed and pander to that conceit and self-consequence which is now his weakest and perhaps most offensive characteristic. If he be made to
feel that extraordinary provisions of law are enacted in his favor because of his weakness or feebleness as a man, the very fact weakens and enfeebles him. The consciousness that there is necessity for such legislation and protection for him must necessarily humiliate and degrade him. Such laws, too, are a constant reminder to him that he is inferior to the white race. They not only remind him of his inferiority and the superiority of the white race in its not requiring these special enactments, but they naturally and necessarily awaken in him a feeling of bitterness and unfriendliness toward the white race. It is impossible that the negro race should live upon terms of mutual confidence and friendship with a race from whom it requires to be protected by a special code—against whose wrongs and oppressions he is not safe except those wrongs are denounced by extraordinary laws and penalties. There can be no peace, no harmony, no confidence, no mutual respect, no feeling of equality between two races living together and protected from the infringement of each other’s rights by different laws and different penalties. It is useless to deprecate or deplore the natural or acquired prejudice of the races so long as the laws enacted for their government in their very nature necessarily awaken, keep alive, and foster them. And whether the prejudice be the plant of the Almighty or the growth of slavery, it cannot be removed by legislative enactments. It may be, as in my judgment it most certainly will be, increased and aggravated by such legislation as this, but it cannot be lessened. If the southern man believes, correctly or erroneously, that the negro race is an inferior race, this kind of legislation is certainly not calculated to remove that belief. This bill and all such bills go upon the ground that the colored race is inferior, feebler, and less capable of taking care of itself than the weakest and most inferior white man. This is the very predicate of this legislation. And whether he claims the natural equality of the races or not, it is an insult to every colored man in the Republic. It is an unnecessary exaggeration and parading of the distinction between them.

  Sir, I have intimated already, and it has been illustrated and demonstrated in and by the effects of previous similar legislation, that the greatest danger now to be apprehended lies in the bringing of the two races into fatal antagonism of rights and interests. If there be natural prejudice, if there be antipathy, if there be antagonisms between the races, almost the entire legislation of Congress on the negro question has been and is calculated to increase and intensify them all. I have referred to some of the effects upon the colored race; but the effects upon the white race and its disposition toward the colored cannot be less deleterious. Born and reared with the idea that they were masters and the colored men slaves, it was not the work of a moment, or a small thing, to reconcile themselves to the changed condition. And yet, under all the circumstances, they may appeal with confidence to this House, the country, or the world that they have conducted themselves with commendable patience and forbearance. Have we not all been disappointed and surprised at their magnanimity and submission? Have they not commended themselves to our warmest sympathy and approbation? Have they not borne themselves under the greatest trials and the severest ordeals to which poor human nature can be subjected with a greatness and grandeur almost sublime?

  Without malice, without resentment, without reproach, they have acquiesced in the emancipation of their slaves and their elevation to free and equal citizenship with themselves.

  If there have been some factions, dissatisfied, and turbulent spirits, it was to have been expected. But the hostile collisions, strifes, and conflicts, I believe on my soul, are more to be attributed to the political and unwise legislation of Congress than to all other causes combined. But because they have thus far with almost broken spirits submitted, we must not forget there is a point beyond which Congress must not go. We must not from the past presume too much. We must not for political or partisan considerations seek to degrade or dishonor them. The white people of the Southern States are a proud, honorable, intelligent people. They are the depositaries of the civilization of many ­centuries. The negro race, possessed of all the natural capabilities the most enthusiastic African admirer can claim for it, even with the example of the white race constantly before it, must grow and develop rapidly for many, many years before it will attain to the same civilization.

  Let us beware, then, how we create the means for irritation and strife between the whites and the blacks of the South. It can be no doubtful or uncertain struggle. Let party exigencies and party necessities be whatever they may seem, it is worse than madness, it is a crime without a name, to bring the two races by our legislation into collision. The white men of the South cannot be brought to submit to the domination of the black man. The attempt will bring ruin and destruction upon the black man or it will end in the extinction of both black and white. The black man has been a slave, the white man never. The black man has with submission and patience worn the yoke of bondage and threw it not off himself; the white man never did and never will submit to be ruled by any race but his own. He may and probably will for a time submit to the sword of the Federal power, but I pray gentlemen not to presume upon that too far. His ancestors long ago taught the Anglo-Saxon the idea of opposition to “intolerable burdens.” And no Anglo-Saxon can bear dishonorable burdens, or burdens imposed upon him by other hands than his own, without seeking the first opportunity to throw them off. The pride of blood and race will never brook the rule of inferior men. The gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. BUTLER] well said “social equality could not be brought about by legislation.” Neither can you by legislation make the white man submit to the rule and domination of the black. I beg gentlemen, as I did in speaking upon this subject in 1868, to “hesitate long before they attempt to bring it about.” It will, it must end in the overthrow and destruction of the weaker race.

  February 4, 1875

  “THIS ACT OF PLAIN JUSTICE”:

  WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 1875

  James A. Garfield:

  from Speech in Congress on the Civil Rights Bill

  Mr. GARFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I concur with those gentlemen who have said that this is a solemn and an interesting occasion. It recalls to my mind a long series of steps which have been taken during the last twenty-five years in the greatest of all the great moral struggles this country has known; and the measure pending here to-day is confronted, in the last assault which has been made upon it, by the first argument that was raised against the anti-slavery movement in its first inception; I mean the charge that it is a sentimental abstraction rather than a measure of practical legislation.

  The men who began this anti-slavery struggle forty years ago were denounced as dreamers, abstractionists, who were looking down to the bottom of society and attempting to see something good, something worthy the attention of American statesmen, something that the friend of human rights ought to support in the person of a negro slave. Every step since that first sentimental beginning has been assailed by precisely the same argument that we have heard to-day. I expressed the hope years ago, Mr. Speaker, that we had at last achieved a position on this great question where we could remit the black man to his own fate under the equal and exact laws of the United States. I have never asked for him one thing beyond this: that he should be placed under the equal protection of the laws, with the equal right to all the blessings which our laws confer; that as God’s sun shines with equal light and blessing upon the lofty and the humble alike, so here the light of our liberty shall shine upon all alike; and that the negro, guaranteed an equal chance in the struggle of life, may work out for himself whatever fortune his own merit will win.

  And now a word to our own people. The warnings uttered to-day are not new. During the last twelve years it has often been rung in our ears that by doing justice to the negro we shall pull down the pillars of our political temple and bury ourselves in its ruins.

  I remember well when it was proposed to put arms in the hands of the black man to help us in the field. I remember in the Army of the Cumberland where there were twenty thousand Union men
from Kentucky and Missouri and we were told that those men would throw down their arms and abandon our cause if we dared to make the negro a soldier. Nevertheless the men whose love of country was greater than their prejudice against color stood firm and fought side by side with the negro to save the Union.

  When we were abolishing slavery by adopting the thirteenth amendment we were again warned that we were bringing measureless calamity upon the Republic. Did it come? Where are the Cassandras of that day who sang their song of ruin in this Hall when we passed that thirteenth amendment? Again when the fourteenth amendment was passed the same wail was heard, the wail of the fearful and unbelieving. Again when it was proposed to elevate the negro to citizenship, to give him the ballot as his weapon of self-defense, we were told the cup of our destruction was filled to its brim. But, sir, I have lived long enough to learn that in the long run it is safest for a nation, a political party, or an individual man to dare to do right, and let consequences take care of themselves, for he that loseth his life for the truth’s sake shall find it. The recent disasters of the republican party have not sprung from any of the brave acts done in the effort to do justice to the negro. For these reasons I do not share in the fears we have heard expressed to-day, that this bill will bring disaster to those who shall make it a law. What is this bill? It is a declaration that every citizen of the United States shall be entitled to the equal enjoyment of all those public chartered privileges granted under State laws to the citizens of the several States. For this act of plain justice we are told that ruin is again staring us in the face! If ruin comes from this, I welcome ruin.