History of Negro Soldiers in the Spanish-American War, and Other Items of Interest
by
Edward A. Johnson
Part 3 out of 3
and Mr. Dunbar's star at once became ascendant. He is said to be a
full-blooded Negro, the son of slave-parents, and his best work is in
the dialect of his race. A volume of his poems is soon to be published
by Dodd, Mead & Co. and in an introduction to it Mr. Howells writes as
follows:
"What struck me in reading Mr. Dunbar's poetry was what had already
struck his friends in Ohio and Indiana, in Kentucky and Illinois. They
had felt as I felt, that however gifted his race had proven itself in
music, in oratory, in several other arts, here was the first instance
of an American Negro who had evinced innate literature. In my
criticism of his book I had alleged Dumas in France, and had forgotten
to allege the far greater Pushkin in Russia; but these were both
mulattoes who might have been supposed to derive their qualities from
white blood vastly more artistic than ours, and who were the creatures
of an environment more favorable to their literary development. So
far as I could remember, Paul Dunbar was the only man of pure African
blood and American civilization to feel the Negro life esthetically
and express it lyrically. It seemed to me that this had come to its
most modern consciousness in him, and that his brilliant and unique
achievement was to have studied the American Negro objectively, and to
have represented him as he found him to be, with humor, with sympathy,
and yet with what the reader must instinctively feel to be entire
truthfulness. I said that a race which had come to this effect in any
member of it had attained civilization in him, and I permitted myself
the imaginative prophecy that the hostilities and the prejudices which
had so long constrained his race were destined to vanish in the arts;
that these were to be the final proof that God had made of one blood
all nations of men. I thought his merits positive and not comparative;
and I held that if his black poems had been written by a white man
I should not have found them less admirable. I accepted them as an
evidence of the essential unity of the human race, which does not
think or feel black in one and white in another, but humanly in all."
The Bookman says of Mr. Dunbar:
"It is safe to assert that accepted as an Anglo-Saxon poet, he would
have received little or no consideration in a hurried weighing of the
mass of contemporary verse."
"But Mr. Dunbar, as his pleasing, manly, and not unrefined face shows,
is a poet of the African race; and this novel and suggestive fact at
once placed his work upon a peculiar footing of interest, of study,
and of appreciative welcome. So regarded, it is a most remarkable and
hopeful production."
[Illustration: PAUL LAWRENCE DUNBAR, THE NEGRO POET.]
We reproduce here one of Dunbar's dialect poems entitled
WHEN DE CO'N PONE'S HOT.
Dey is times in life when Nature
Seems to slip a cog an' go
Jes' a-rattlin' down creation,
Lak an ocean's overflow;
When de worl' jes' stahts a-spinnin'
Lak a picaninny's top,
An' you' cup o' joy is brimmin'
'Twel it seems about to slop.
An' you feel jes' lak a racah
Dat is trainin' fu' to trot--
When you' mammy ses de blessin'
An' de co'n pone's hot.
When you set down at de table,
Kin' o' weary lak an' sad,
'An' you'se jest a little tiahed,
An' purhaps a little mad--
How you' gloom tu'ns into gladness,
How you' joy drives out de doubt
When de oven do' is opened
An' de smell comes po'in' out;
Why, de 'lectric light o' Heaven
Seems to settle on de spot,
When yo' mammy ses de blessin'
An' de co'n pone's hot.
When de cabbage pot is steamin'
An' de bacon good an' fat,
When de chittlin's is a-sputter'n'
So's to show yo' whah dey's at;
Take away you sody biscuit,
Take away yo' cake an' pie.
Fu' de glory time is comin',
An' it's proachin' very nigh,
An' you' want to jump an' hollah,
Do you know you'd bettah not,
When you mammy ses de blessin'
An' de co'n pone's hot?
I have heerd o' lots o' sermons,
An' I've heerd o' lots o' prayers;
An' I've listened to some singin'
Dat has tuck me up de stairs
Of de Glory Lan' an' set me
Jes' below de Mahster's th'one,
An' have lef my haht a singin'
In a happy aftah-tone.
But dem wu's so sweetly murmured
Seem to tech de softes' spot,
When my mammy ses de blessin'.
An de co'n pone's hot.
--Taken from the Literary Digest.
DISFRANCHISEMENT OF COLORED VOTERS.
While the Northern and Western portions of the United States were
paying tributes to the valor of the Negro soldiers who fought for the
flag in Cuba, the most intense feeling ever witnessed, was brewing in
some sections of the South-notably in the North Carolina Legislature
against the rights and privileges of Negro citizenship, which
culminated in the passage of a "Jim Crow" car law, and an act to amend
the Constitution so as to disfranchise the colored voters. It was
noticeable, however, that although the "Jim Crow Car" law got through
that body in triumph, yet the "Jim Crow Bed" law, which made it a
felony for whites and colored to cohabit together DID NOT PASS.
[Illustration: FILIPINO LADY OF MANILA.]
The Washington Post, which cannot be rated as generally partial to the
colored citizens of the Union, and which is especially vicious in its
attacks on the colored soldiers, has the following to say as to the
proposed North Carolina amendment, which is so well said that we
insert the same in full as an indication to our people that justice is
not yet dead--though seemingly tardy:
SUFFRAGE IN NORTH CAROLINA.
(Washington Post, Feb. 20, 1899.)
The amendment to the Constitution of North Carolina, which has for its
object the limitation of the suffrage in the State, appears to have
been modeled on the new Louisiana laws and operate a gross oppression
and injustice. It is easy to see that the amendment is not intended to
disfranchise the ignorant, but to stop short with the Negro; to deny
to the illiterate black man the right of access to the ballot box and
yet to leave the way wide open to the equally illiterate whites. In
our opinion the policy thus indicated is both dangerous and unjust. We
expressed the same opinion in connection with the Louisiana laws, and
we see no reason to amend our views in the case of North Carolina.
The proposed arrangement is wicked. It will not bear the test of
intelligent and impartial examination. We believe in this case, as in
that of Louisiana, that the Federal Constitution has been violated,
and we hope that the people of North Carolina will repudiate the
blunder at the polls.
We realize with sorrow and apprehension that there are elements at the
South enlisted in the work of disfranchising the Negro for purposes
of mere party profit. It has been so in Louisiana, where laws were
enacted under which penniless and illiterate Negroes cannot vote,
while the ignorant and vicious classes of whites are enabled to retain
and exercise the franchise. So far as we are concerned--and we believe
that the best element of the South in every State will sustain our
proposition-we hold that, as between the ignorant of the two races,
the Negroes are preferable. They are conservative; they are good
citizens; they take no stock in social schisms and vagaries; they do
not consort with anarchists; they cannot be made the tools and agents
of incendiaries; they constitute the solid, worthy, estimable yeomanry
of the South. Their influence in government would be infinitely more
wholesome than the influence of the white sansculotte, the riff-raff,
the idlers, the rowdies, and the outlaws. As between the Negro,
no matter how illiterate he may be, and the "poor white," the
property-holders of the South prefer the former. Excepting a few
impudent, half-educated, and pestiferous pretenders, the Negro masses
of the South are honest, well-meaning, industrious, and safe citizens.
They are in sympathy with the superior race; they find protection and
encouragement with the old slave-holding class; if left alone,
they would furnish the bone and sinew of a secure and progressive
civilization. To disfranchise this class and leave the degraded whites
in possession of the ballot would, as we see the matter, be a blunder,
if not a crime.
The question has yet to be submitted to a popular vote. We hope it
will be decided in the negative. Both the Louisiana Senators are on
record as proclaiming the unconstitutionality of the law. Both are
eminent lawyers, and both devoted absolutely to the welfare of the
South. We can only hope, for the sake of a people whom we admire and
love, that this iniquitous legislation may be overruled in North
Carolina as in Louisiana.
CHAPTER IX.
SOME FACTS ABOUT THE PHILIPPINOS.
WHO AGUINALDO IS.
Emilio Aguinaldo was born March 22, 1869, at Cavite, Viejo.
When twenty-five years old he was elected Mayor of Cavite.
On August 21, 1896, Aguinaldo became leader of the insurgents. The
revolution started on that day.
He fought four battles with the Spaniards and was victorious in all.
He lost but ten men, to the Spaniards 125.
On December 24, 1897, a peace was established between Aguinaldo and
the Spanish.
Aguinaldo received $400,000, but the rest of the conditions of peace
were never carried out.
In June last Aguinaldo issued a proclamation, expressing a desire for
the establishment of a native administration in the Philippines under
an American protectorate.
In an interview with a World correspondent at that time he expressed
himself as grateful to Americans.
In July he issued a proclamation fixing the 12th day of that month for
the declaration of the independence of the Philippines.
In November Aguinaldo defied General Otis, refusing to release his
Spanish prisoners.
The Cabinet on December 2 cabled General Otis to demand the release of
the prisoners.
[Illustration: EMILIO AGUINALDO, MILITARY DICTATOR OF THE FILIPINOS.]
AGUINALDO THE MAN.
In his features, face and skull Aguinaldo looks more like a European
than a Malay.
He is what would be called a handsome man, and might be compared with
many young men in the province of Andalusia, Spain. If there be truth
in phrenology he is a man above the common. Friends and enemies
agree that he is intelligent, ambitious, far-sighted, brave,
self-controlled, honest, moral, vindictive, and at times cruel. He
possesses the quality which friends call wisdom and enemies call
craft. According to those who like him he is courteous, polished,
thoughtful and dignified; according to those who dislike him he is
insincere, pretentious, vain and arrogant. Both admit him to be
genial, generous, self-sacrificing, popular and capable in the
administration of affairs. If the opinion of his foes be accepted he
is one of the greatest Malays on the page of history. If the opinion
of his friends be taken as the criterion he is one of the great men of
history irrespective of race.--The Review of Reviews.
FACTS FROM FELIPE AGONCILLO'S LETTER IN LESLIE'S MAGAZINE.
Sixty per cent, of the inhabitants can read and write.
The women in education are on a plane with the men.
Each town of 5,000 inhabitants has two schools for children of both
sexes. The towns of 10,000 inhabitants have three schools. There are
technical training schools in Manila, Iloilo, and Bacoler. "In these
schools are taught cabinet work, silversmithing, lock-smithing,
lithography, carpentering, machinery, decorating, sculpture, political
economy, commercial law, book-keeping, and commercial correspondence,
French and English; and there is one superior college for painting,
sculpture and engraving. There is also a college of commercial exports
in Manila, and a nautical school, as well as a superior school of
agriculture. Ten model farms and a meteorological observatory are
conducted in other provinces, together with a service of geological
studies, a botanical garden and a museum, a laboratory and military
academy and a school of telegraphy."
Manila has a girl's school (La Ascuncion) of elementary and superior
branches, directed by French, English and Spanish mothers, which
teaches French, English literature, arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry,
topography, physics, geology, universal history, geography, designing,
music, dress-making and needle-work. The capital has besides a
municipal school of primary instruction and the following colleges:
Santa Ysabel, Santa Catolina, La Concordia, Santa Rosa de la Looban,
a hospital of San Jose, and an Asylum of St. Vincent de Paul, all
of which are places of instruction for children. There are other
elementary schools in the State of Camannis, in Pasig, in Vigan and
Jaro.
The entire conduct of the civilization of the Philippines as well as
local authorities are in the hands of the Philipinos themselves. They
also had charge of the public offices of the government during the
last century.
There is a medical school and a school for mid-wives.
"All the young people and especially the boys, belonging to well-to-do
families residing in the other islands go to Manila to study the
arts and learn a profession. Among the natives to be ignorant and
uneducated, is a shameful condition of degradation."
"The sons of the rich families began to go to Spain in 1854" to be
educated.
[Illustration: FELIPE AGONCILLO Emissary of the Filipinos to the
United States.]
When the Spaniards first went to the islands "they found the
Philipinos enlightened and advanced in civilization." "They had
foundries for casting iron and brass, for making guns and powder.
They had their special writing with two alphabets, and used paper
imported from China and Japan." This was in the early part of the
sixteenth century. The Spanish government took the part of the natives
against the imposition of exhorbitant taxes, and the tortures of the
inquisition by the early settlers.
The highest civilization exists in the island of Luzon but in some
of the remote islands the people are not more than "enlightened." The
population embraced in Anguinaldo's dominion is 10,000,000, scattered
over a territory in area approaching 200,000 square miles. The
Americans up to this time have conquered only about 143 square miles
of this territory.
What takes place in the South concerning the treatment of Negroes is
known in the Philippines. The Philipino government on the 27th of
February, 1899, issued from Hong Kong the following decree warning the
Philipino people as follows:
"Manila has witnessed the most horrible outrages, the confiscation of
the properties and savings of the people at the point of the bayonet,
the shooting of the defenseless, accompanied by odious acts of
abomination repugnant barbarism and social hatred, worse than the
doings in the Carolinas."
They are told of America's treatment of the black population, and are
made to feel that it is better to die fighting than become subject
to a nation where, as they are made to believe, the colored man is
lynched and burned alive indiscriminately. The outrages in this
country is giving America a bad name among the savage people of the
world, and they seem to prefer savagery to American civilization, such
as is meted out to her dark-skinned people.
CHAPTER X.
RESUME.
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."
[Illustration: CONVENT AT CAVITE, WHERE AGUINALDO WAS PROCLAIMED
PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINE REPUBLIC (JUNE, 1898).]
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 Postoffice, 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.
[Illustration: CHURCH OF SAN SEBASTIANO, MANILLA.]
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 bowlders from
mountain tops 'that his name became the synonymn 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.'"
[Illustration: UNCLE SAM AND HIS NEW ACQUISITIONS.--(N.Y. WORLD.)]
THE SOUTH IS A GOOD PLACE FOR THE NEGRO TO LIVE, provided, however,
the better class of citizens will rise up and demand that lynchings
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.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
William McKinley.......................................Frontispiece
General Fitzhugh Lee............................................. 6
General Antonio Maceo............................................ 8
Miss Evangelina Cosio y Cisneros ............................... 10
U.S.S. Maine.................................................... 12
Eddie Savoy..................................................... 14
Jose Maceo...................................................... 16
Sergeant Frank W. Pullen........................................ 20
Charge on El Caney.............................................. 26
Corporal Brown ................................................. 28
George E. Powell................................................ 35
Col. Theodore B. Roosevelt...................................... 39
Gen. Nelson A. Miles.......... ................................. 47
Sergeant Berry.................................................. 48
General Thomas J. Morgan........................................ 50
General Maximo Gomez............................................ 54
First Pay-day in Cuba for the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry........... 58
First President of the Cuban Republic........................... 64
Cubans Fighting from Tree Tops.................................. 70
Investment of Santiago by U.S. Army............................. 78
General Russell A. Alger, Secretary of War...................... 82
Cuban Women Cavalry............................................. 84
Officers of the Ninth Ohio...................................... 92
Major John R. Lynch............................................. 96
Major R.R. Wright.............................................. 100
Major J.B. Johnson............................................. 106
Third North Carolina Volunteers and Officers................... 108
President Charles F. Meserve................................... 110
Mr. Judson W. Lyons............................................ 113
The Games Family............................................... 115
Coleman Cotton Factory......................................... 116
John R. Brown, Uncle Sam's Money Sealer........................ 118
Gen. Pio Pilar................................................. 120
Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Negro Poet............................... 122
A Philipino Lady............................................... 124
Emilio Aguinaldo, Military Dictator of the Filipinos........... 128
Felipe Agoncillo............................................... 130
Convent at Cavite, Aguinaldo's Headquarters.................... 132
Church at San Sebastiano, Manila............................... 136
Uncle Sam and His New Acquisitions............................. 142
APPENDIX.
THE TWENTY-FOURTH UNITED STATES INFANTRY.
BY SERGEANT E.D. GIBSON.
The Twenty-fourth United States Infantry was organized by act of
Congress July 28, 1866. Reorganized by consolidation of the 38th and
41st regiments of infantry, by act of Congress, approved March 3,
1869. Organization of regiment completed in September, 1869, with
headquarters at Fort McKavett, Texas.
Since taking station at Fort McKavett, headquarters of the regiment
have been at the following places:
1870-71, Fort McKavett, Tex.; 1872, Forts McKavett and Brown, Texas;
1873-74, Forts Brown and Duncan, Tex.; 1875-76, Fort Brown, Tex.;
1877-78, Fort Clark, Tex.; 1879, Fort Duncan, Tex.; 1880, Forts Duncan
and Davis, Tex.; 1881-87, Fort Supply, Ind. Terr.; 1888, Forts Supply
and Sill, Ind. Terr., and Bayard, N.M.; 1889 to 1896, Forts Bayard,
N.M., and Douglas, Utah; 1897, Fort Douglas, Utah; 1898, Fort Douglas,
Utah, till April 20, when ordered into the field, incident to the
breaking out of the Spanish-American war. At Chickamauga Park, Ga.,
April 24 to 30; Tampa, Fla., May 2 to June 7; on board transport _S.S.
City of Washington_, en route with expedition (Fifth Army Corps) to
Cuba, from June 9 to 25; at Siboney and Las Guasimas, Cuba, from June
25 to 30; occupied the immediate block-house hill at Fort San Juan,
Cuba, July 1 to 10, from which position the regiment changed to a
place on the San Juan ridge about one-fourth of a mile to the left of
the block-house, where it remained until July 15, when it took station
at yellow fever camp, Siboney, Cuba, remaining until August 26, 1898;
returned to the United States August 26, arriving at Montauk Pt.,
L.I., September 2, 1898, where it remained until September 26, when
ordered to its original station, Fort Douglas, Utah, rejoining October
1, 1898.
FIELD AND STAFF OFFICERS.
Colonel.--Henry B. Freeman, under orders to join.
Lieutenant-Colonel.--Emerson H. Liscum, Brig.-Gen. Vols. On sick leave
from wounds received in action at Fort San Juan, Cuba, July 1, 1898.
Majors.--J. Milton Thompson, commanding regiment and post of Fort
Douglas, Utah. Alfred C. Markley, with regiment, commanding post of
Fort D.A. Russell, Wyoming.
Chaplain.--Allen Allenworth, Post Treasurer and in charge of schools.
Adjutant.--Joseph D. Leitch, recruiting officer at post.
Quartermaster.--Albert Laws.
On July 1, 1898, our regiment was not a part of the firing line, and
was not ordered on that line until the fire got so hot that the
white troops positively refused to go forward. When our commander,
Lieutenant-Colonel E.H. Liscum, was ordered to go in he gave the
command "forward, march," and we moved forward singing "Hold the Fort,
for we are coming," and on the eastern bank of the San Juan river
we walked over the Seventy-first New York Volunteer Infantry. After
wading the river we marched through the ranks of the Thirteenth
(regular) Infantry and formed about fifty yards in their front. We
were then about six hundred yards from and in plain view of the
block-house and Spanish trenches. As soon as the Spaniards saw this
they concentrated all of their fire on us, and, while changing from
column to line of battle (which took about eight minutes).
Illustration: A large size photo of above picture can be had on
application to P.H. Bauer, Photographer, Leavenworth, Kansas. we lost
one hundred and two men, and that place on the river to-day is called
"bloody bend." We had only one advantage of the enemy-that was our
superior marksmanship. I was right of the battalion that led the
charge and I directed my line against the center of the trench, which
was on a precipice about two hundred feet high.
Illustration: A large size photo of above picture can be had on
application to P.H. Bauer, Photographer, Leavenworth, Kansas.
I was born December 4, 1852, in Wythe county, Virginia, and joined the
army in Cincinnati, Ohio, November 22,1869, and have been in the army
continuously since. I served my first ten years in the Tenth Cavalry,
where I experienced many hard fights with the Indians. I was assigned
to the Twenty-fourth Infantry by request in 1880.
E.D. GIBSON,
_Sergeant Co. G, 24th U.S. Infantry_,
PRESIDIO, CALIFORNIA.
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