COL. GEORGE WASHINGTON FLOWERS 
 MEMORIAL COLLECTION 
 
 DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 DURHAM, N. C. 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 W. W. FLOWERS 
 

 
 
 
 
 Digitized by 
 
 the Internet Archive 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 in 2015 
 
 
 
 https://archive.org/details/vaughansfreedmen01vaug 
 
WALTER R. VAUGHAN, 
 
 CHICAGO, ILL. 
 
 (See Sketch on page 56.) 
 
VAUQHAN'S 
 
 'Treedmen's Pension 
 
 Bill." 
 
 BEING AN APPEAL IN BEHALF OF MEN 
 RELEASED FROM SLAVERY. 
 
 AMERICAN FREEDMEN 
 
 AND 
 
 A Rational Proposition to Grant Pensions 
 TO Persons of Color Emancipated 
 From Slavery. 
 
 W. R. VAUGHAN. 
 
 AUTHOR, 
 
 CHICAGO, ILLLN^OIS. 
 
Bntered According to Act of Congress, in the Year 1891, by 
 
 W. R. VAUGHAN, 
 
 OMAHA, NEBRASKA, 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 
 
 DEDICATED TO 
 W, J. Cornell, the brave representative in the halls of the 
 American Congress, from Nebraska, who dared to sa}^ that the 
 slave of a century is entitled to financial recognition because of 
 former wrongs. To him it is dedicated by the author of this 
 book and also the Pension Bill. 
 
 By his friend, 
 
 WALTER R. VAUGHAN. 
 
244177 
 
THE CAPITOL, WASHINGTON, D. C, 
 
 Where laws have been made and slavery endorsed for over a hun- 
 dred years, and where the results of negro labor have been enjoyed, 
 without giving compensation therefor. 
 
PEEFAOE. 
 
 In approaching a work that I deem to be of national importance, it may 
 be a duty I owe to my countrymen, whether white or black, to say that I have 
 been moved in the direction of asking the Government to provide pensions for 
 former slaves by a sense of duty which I esteem the Government to owe to 
 men who have been the unwilling subjects of lawful authority adversely to 
 their natural right of personal liberty. The people made free by Presidential 
 Proclamation, and confirmed in their freedom by amendments to the Federal 
 Constitution, and by the organic laws of those States where slavery was a 
 recognized institution prior to the war of the rebellion, have certain natural 
 rights that neither the puffs of newspaper writers nor the whimsical cant of 
 small fry politicians can oppress into obedient silence. The fact stands forth 
 in historic writ that an enslaved black race has been set free after a lifetime of 
 service to masters not of its own choosing. During the years of Negro servi- 
 tude colored men, women and children have been rated as chattels and taxed 
 as such for the exclusive benefit of the white race. Courts, schools and 
 benevolent institutions have been established and maintained upon the blood 
 and sweat of the Negro race. The cattle upon southern plantations returned 
 less money into the public treasury for the maintenance of educational institu- 
 tions than Negro chattels held into slavery through a system of traditional 
 wrong. The direct beneficiaries of the system of slavery were not responsible 
 for a wrong entailed upon them. Until the way for emancipation was opened, 
 by the circumstances of war, the freedom of the Africo-American race was 
 nearly, if not quite, impracticable. 
 
 The vicissitude of civil war presented a gloomy picture in ihe history of 
 the American republic. States dissevered, homes divided and old-time per- 
 sonal friends made public enemies, are but a few of the wretched features of 
 the days made vivid by the continuous gun-powder flashes that burst upon the 
 eyes of an amazed people from Bull Run to Appomattox — from 1861 to 1865. 
 Amidst the din and clash of horrid war but one rainbow of heavenly promise 
 beamed upon the American people as a result of the collapse of the Confeder- 
 acy. A harbinger of good will came in the assured freedom of the previously 
 condemned slave. Slowly from the ruin of war the States were rehabilitated, 
 and took their places as members of the Constitutional Union. At evf3ry 
 stage of reconstruction the freedom of the Negro was made more certain, and 
 in that work the doom of slavery was forever settled upon the North American 
 continent. 
 
 But the freedom of the Negro has not compensated the families turned 
 adrift from home and bade to work for personal subsistence. In old age, and 
 many in the throes of poverty, they appeal to the Government that made them 
 free to furnish them a necessary support. The Government has no right to 
 convert the circumstances of their freedom into a condition of absolute cruelty. 
 If the saviors of a nation are entitled to the aid of the Government, surely the 
 wards of the nation are worthy of practical assistance. 
 
viii 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Be just to the blacks of the days of slavery. Their recognition as citi- 
 zens, worthy of compensation for past errors of the Government, will do more 
 to elevate the fame of a great nation that dares to be just, even at a late hour, 
 than all the story of its brilliant achievements in arms. The glory of Amer- 
 ican freedom will be made perfect in the pension of the surviving slaves of the 
 ante-bellum period. W. R. VAUGHAN. 
 
 Omaha, Neb., October 1, 1890. 
 
 TO THE PEOPLE. 
 
 Since the publication of the first edition of Vaughan's Freedmen's Pen- 
 sion Bill and Plea for the Old Slave, the effort in behalf of the right has had 
 substantial progress, though hampered by all the whims and obstacles which 
 usually obstruct a work of reform. The disadvantage of undertaking the 
 right in the face of prejudice to be encountered in state, in church, in school 
 and college, has been nearly infioite; but the sunlight of reason has shed an 
 occasional glinting of hope emerging from the darkness of despair. The way 
 is at length open for a better showing before the country; still the task in hand 
 is almost appalling. For a man of great wealth the accomplishment of a 
 truly humanitarian work of right and justice may be a pleasurable undertak- 
 ing. But when the labor of reform falls into hands not filled with "the root 
 of all evil," the task assumed is one presenting direful misgivings at every 
 step. But a great work must and will succeed in spite of every opposing 
 difficulty. 
 
 The first edition of 10,000 copies has been exhausted at great loss to the 
 author. A second edition is ready for submission to the public. Much labor 
 and expense have been added, so that readers may be assured of the earnest 
 work in hand. In going before the public the cost and toil and the wear and 
 ttar of physical and mental forces were not overlooked. Rebuffs were 
 expected, and have been abundant. Discouragement has appeared in every 
 possible form. White men have frowned and combated, while many influen- 
 tial and educated Negroes have been incredulous and doubtful. Still the work 
 has made progress, and it will not be allowed to flag. The rights of the old 
 slaves must be recognized. Strong hands have been laid to the plow, and 
 there will be no turning back. 
 
 Chicago, III., September 1, 1891. W. R. VAUGHAN. 
 
VAUGHAN'S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 The work of history, written in the interest of the races of 
 mankind, has been sadly deficient in its efforts to do justice 
 between the various elements of civilization. In surve3^ing the 
 field of universal population that spreads over a m^a-iad of climes, 
 making up a world, it must be apparent to the interested observer 
 that the field of progress has been disputed from the beginning, 
 only to be acquired in the end b}' those elements of nationality 
 which secured domination here and there hy means of force. The 
 people who were subdued fell into despondenc}' and at length into 
 slaver}" . 
 
 It is not the purpose of the writer to delineate the advancement 
 of the northern races that made progress in the work of civiliza- 
 tion, or to decry the lassitude that enveloped the people of warmer 
 climates who eventuall}^ became a pre}" to their more vigorous 
 neighbors. The recognition of might in making right the 
 will of those in power has done much in the direction of giving 
 tyrants their sway, and of transmitting their authority to those 
 who may arise in the line of heredity. Nations have been born 
 and made to rule simply at the behest of adjacent power. Kings 
 have advanced the rules of kingdoms by placing members of royal 
 families in control of provinces conquered b}' the work of war. 
 
 In the advancement of power it has naturally followed that 
 those who were weak fell into communities by themselves, and 
 they became the prey of their more powerful neighbors. As far 
 as they could they resisted predator}" incursions designed to make 
 vassals of captives; but the fact is indisputable that human 
 slavery was born of captive people made prisoners from the 
 circumstance of war. 
 
 Once the existence of human slavery had gained a foothold 
 within the domain of a powerful monarch, it was an easy work for 
 the navies of that monarch to spread the institution wherever 
 there was a demand for labor. The slave trade sprang up and 
 flourished at the will of potentates whose provinces were enrinched 
 by the products of slave labor. 
 
 According to Chambers' Encyclopedia, which states the case 
 very fairly, the negro slavery of modern times was a sequel to the 
 
10 
 
 VAUGHAN S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 discovery of America. Before that discovery African negroes, 
 who were but races of savages, enslaved their captives taken in 
 war. That is to say, a successful tribe made slaves of its prisoners 
 taken from an unsuccessful or weaker tribe. The Arabs, who 
 were roving bands of merchantmen, made a regular trade in 
 negroes who were captives of warlike expeditions. After the dis- 
 coveries of Columbus, and those who followed in his wake, the de- 
 portation of Africans to the plantations and mines of the New 
 World raised the value of captive negroes and gave to them a 
 market value. Instead of putting Ch,ptives to death, as had been 
 the custom, thenceforward they were sold into slavery and shipped 
 to North or South America or to adjacent islands. The Portugese, 
 who possessed a large part of the African coast, began the work of 
 importing negro slaves to America, and other seafaring nations 
 quickly followed in the remunerative trade. England furnished 
 her quota of merchants and merchant ships to carry on a business 
 wherein traders made fortunes. No less than 300,000 slaves were 
 conve3^ed under the British flag from the coast of Africa between 
 the 3^ears 1680 and 1700, and between 1700 and 1786 the vast 
 number of 610,000 were exported from Africa to the Island of 
 Jamaica, a British province, to say nothing of the vast army 
 thrust upon the British colonial possessions of North America. 
 
 The British nation, that engaged so earnestl}^ in the work of 
 planting slavery on the soil of the New World, took an early part 
 in suppressing the African slave trade and also in the work of eman- 
 cipation. A society for the suppression of the slave trade was 
 organized in London in 1787. The parliamentary leader in this 
 great work of humanity was William Wilberforce, who occupied 
 about the sa^ne relation to the British parliament of a century ago 
 that William E. Gladstone does to the parliament of to-day. The 
 bill presented by Wilberforce, looking to the abolition of the 
 slave trade, failed in 1791. but under the leadership of Mr. 
 Fox it subsequently became a law and was made operative 
 after January 1, 1808. The United States followed Great 
 Britain in the suppression of the slave trade. Other countries 
 joined in suppressing the traffic. But Englishmen continued 
 the nefarious work for a number of years under the protection of 
 the flags of both Spain and Portugal. In 1811 the British parlia- 
 ment, under the leadership of Lord Brougham, made participation 
 in the slave trade a felony, and in 1824 it was declared pirac}^, 
 punishable with death. 
 
vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 11 
 
 But while this work of reform had been spreading over the 
 world the slave traders of Great Britain had succeeded in planting 
 the institution of slavery upon a firm basis in the British provinces 
 of North America. Hence those colonies had been easily made the 
 recipients of British rape upon the savage tribes along the coast of 
 Africa. In this wa}^ American colonists, to whom large grants of 
 land had been made in Korth America, became enriched without 
 severe effort on the part of the grantees. English slavers poured a 
 horde of African captives upon the American colonies and com- 
 pelled planters to bu}^ them as a condition of British protection. 
 Id 1618 the British ship Treasurer was engaged in the slave trade 
 and landed African negroes from the mouth of the Congo river 
 upon the banks of the James. The following year a Dutch man- 
 of-war, sailing under commission of the Prince of Orange, landed 
 upon the coast of Virginia a cargo of 14 negroes, and the next 
 season a cargo of 39 souls was landed at Jamestown. These were 
 placed on the market for sale, paj^able in tobacco, which seems at 
 that time to have been the currenc}^ of the realm. An able-bodied 
 African, slave was sold for 60 pounds of tobacco, and the pur- 
 chasing planter was supposed to have paid the full value of the 
 poor negro's body and soul in the transfer. 
 
 It was, perhaps, fort}^ years after the introduction of slavery 
 into Virginia before the work of planting involuntary African 
 servitude upon American soil was countenanced by acts of the 
 Virginia colony. In 1662 an act was adopted in the Colonial 
 Assembl}^ of Virginia providing that slaves might be held as sub- 
 jects of law. Freviousl}^ to December 14, of that year, slavery 
 existed without legal authority, bu'o the sale of men and women, 
 the separation of families and the helpless condition of children 
 born in slaver^^ induced a law regulating the sale of slaves; and 
 perhaps that law remains unrepealed and in effective force to-day, 
 save the fact that subsequent conditions may have annulled it. 
 
 An exhaustive examination fails to furnish any data going to 
 show that Virginia as a state made any revocation of laws 
 adopted in ante-revolutionary da3^s establishing colonial slavery. 
 It was natural that olden laws should be accepted as part of the 
 first constitution of Virginia, under the federal system, and that 
 slaver}^ should have been recognized as a state institution. 
 
 The condition of African slaver}^ existing in Virginia, in 
 pursuance of colonial custom and law, naturally extended into the 
 territorial dependencies of Virginia, and might have remained as 
 an institution until emancipation came, but for the act of congress 
 
12 
 
 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 in 1787, which excluded slavery from the northwestern territory 
 ceded by Virginia to the United States. 
 
 At the organization of the Federal Government the institution 
 of slavery existed in all of the original thirteen states. It was 
 not alone in the states south of Mason and Dixon's line that 
 slavery was a fixed institution, but in the other commonwealths, 
 which became partners of the South in resistance to the tyranny 
 of King George, there were slaves held by the white inhabitants 
 under authority of local law. By virtue of the first federal cen- 
 sus, taken in pursuance of the constitution of the United States, 
 and under the authority of George Washington, then serving the 
 first presidential term of the new republic, we find the following 
 slave population returned in 1790 — just one hundred years ago: 
 
 Connecticut 2,759 
 
 Delaware 8,887 
 
 Georgia 29,264 
 
 Kentucky 11,830 
 
 Maryland 103,036 
 
 New Hampshire 158 
 
 New Jersey 11,423 
 
 New York 21,324 
 
 North Carolina 100,572 
 
 Pennsylvania : _ 3,737 
 
 Ehode Island. 952 
 
 South Carolina 107,094 
 
 Vermont 17 
 
 Virginia * 293,427 
 
 Territory south of Ohio river 3,417 
 
 Total ......697,897 
 
 It is thus made to appear that the people of the Federal States 
 looked upon slavery as an established institution at the incipiency 
 of our Government, to be regulated with respect to commerce 
 abroad and domestic security at home. Two-thirds of a million of 
 slave people were recognized as a part of the people of the Fed- 
 eral Government. From that daj^ until the first proclamation of 
 Abraham Lincoln, dated September 22, 1862, looking to the eman- 
 cipation of the colored race from bondage, the existence of slavery 
 as a national institution was recognized in law, and by the admin- 
 istration in power at the seat of the general government as a 
 fixed institution of the new republic. The Northern States, one 
 after another, that looked upon the institution of slavery in 1790 
 as existing by recognition of the national government, adopted 
 acts of gradual emancipation which freed them from the stigma 
 
yaughan's plea for the old slates. 13 
 
 of slaverj" earl}^ in the nineteenth century. Yet it is a fact that 
 slaves were held in several of the states north of Mason and 
 Dixon's line as late as 1840. 
 
 The history of the warfare against slavery instituted by 
 William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Gerritt Smith, Horace 
 Greeley and others of the old-time abolition leaders goes to show 
 that they never contemplated the forcible abolition of slavery. 
 They looked upon it as an institution fastened upon the people by 
 ancient colonial law, and they hoped to secure emancipation by 
 making the institution repulsive to those who held slaves, and to 
 appeal to their sense of justice for the obliteration of the lines that 
 held black men in servitude . 
 
 Even as late as August 22, 1862, when the war of the rebellion 
 was in full blast. President Lincoln expressed himself to Horace 
 Greele}" in the following forcible terms: 
 
 My paramount object is to save the Union and not either to save or 
 destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I 
 would do it: if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and 
 if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do 
 that. "What I do about slavery and the colored race I do because I believe 
 it helps to save this Union: and what I forbear to do, I forbear because I 
 do not believe it would help to save the Union. 
 
 It will thus be seen that b}' the strongest friends of the colored 
 race the question involved in the war of the rebellion did not 
 contemplate the release of the slave from the bondage of serfdom. 
 The idea paramount in the minds of the great men of the earlj^ 
 war period contemplated no freedom for the slave, but merely the 
 making of him an instrument in the suppression of an armed 
 rebellion and the salvation of a constitutional union of the states, 
 without regard to the immediate effect which the saving of the 
 Union might have upon the status of the negro. All men in high 
 places looked upon the negro as an unwilling factor in the govern- 
 ment, forced upon the states by ancient British rule; and in sav- 
 ing the institutions planted upon this hemisphere by the fathers of 
 the republic the condition of the negro had no part or parcel in 
 the consideration of the men who sustained Abraham Lincoln 
 during the early days of the rebellion. The circumstances of 
 emancipation were compelled by the circumstances of war. 
 
 It is known and admitted that President Lincoln had in con- 
 templation, early in 1861, the appointment of Stephen A. 
 Douglas to the command of the arm}- of the L^nited States. Mr. 
 Douglas at that date was willing to have slavery extended into 
 free territory in case it was the will of the people; which, how- 
 
14 VATIGHAN^S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 ever, he did not believe to prevail. But with his known and 
 declared sentiments, had he lived, Mr. Douglas would most likely 
 have been made commander of the Union armies, and it is possible 
 that he might have been the first declarent of slavery emancipation 
 within the states. The circumstances of his surroundings would 
 probably have pointed to him the line of duty as it appeared to 
 Mr. Lincoln in the progress of a carnage which finally made an 
 enslaved race free. 
 
 The meager incidents in the career of African slavery already 
 mentioned are sufficient in themselves to demonstrate that slavery 
 was planted within the United States by force, and was continued 
 under authority of law until emancipation was promulgated as a 
 measure necessary to ensure the quelling of an armed rebellion. 
 Emancipation was not a voluntary tribute to freedom, but was 
 extorted by the circumstances of war, as a measure necessary to 
 o.verthrow the power of insurgents against constitutional govern- 
 ment. The men in authority at the time civil war began to rage 
 had no idea of making use of the negro as an agent in conquering 
 the rebellion. When it became manifest that it was a necessity 
 to make use of all the means which God and nature had placed at 
 the disposal of duly constituted authority, in order that armed 
 resistance against the government might be suppressed, then, and 
 only then, was the president moved to make a proclamation of 
 freedom to southern slaves. The person is not living, white or 
 black, who will presume to assert that Abraham Lincoln was not a 
 man of large heart, humane impulses and an earnest friend of 
 liberty to all mankind. But as president of the republic he 
 esteemed it his first duty to save the life of a nation, the govern- 
 ment whereof had been committed to his hands. Mr. Lincoln was 
 not alone in this view. Cabinet officers, members of both houses 
 of congress, military commanders in the field, and in truth nearly 
 all the inhabitants of the loj^al states accepted the same line of 
 policy as the governing principle of the war into which the nation 
 had suddenly plunged. 
 
 In the progress of the war it became the policy of the United 
 States Government to enlist the. services of negro soldiers as an 
 element directly interested in measures which, in the end, led to 
 the freedom of an enslaved race. It is perhaps true that the Con- 
 federacy took the first step in the direction of employing colored 
 troops, and in this way set a wholesome example to the Federal 
 authorities. Whether the enlistment of colored troops for service 
 in the Southern army contemplated the freedom of such soldiers 
 
VAUGHAN^S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES 
 
 15 
 
 does not certainly appear. Had such freedom been promised, it is 
 possible that a formidable army of blacks might have been re- 
 cruited for the army of the South. But that negro soldiers were 
 emploj^ed is pretty well established. The Charleston Mercury 
 noted, within a fortnight after the attack upon Fort. Sumter had 
 been made, that several companies of the Third and Fourth regi- 
 ments of Georgia had marched for the theater of war in Virginia, 
 and that accompanying them was one company of negro soldiers t 
 from Nashville, Tenn., Avhich had offered its services to the Con- 
 federate States and had been accepted. In the earl}^ part of Ma}^ 
 1861, a citizens' committee of safety at Memphis took steps to au- 
 thorize C. Deloach, D. R. Cook and William B. Greenlaw " to 
 organize a volunteer compan}" com]30sed of our patriotic free men 
 of color, of the cit}^ of Memphis, for the service of our common 
 defense." It does not appear that negroes held as slaves were 
 asked to join the enterprise. Later on, Februar}^ 9, 1862, there 
 was a grand militar}^ review held in the cit}^ of New Orleans at 
 which, according to the Dail}- Pica3'une, there were included 
 * ' companies of free colored men , all very well drilled and com- 
 fortabl}^ uniformed." It was further stated that these negro 
 soldiers had supplied themselves with arms without regard to cost 
 or trouble, unaided by the Confederate Government. On this 
 occasion ' ' a fine war flag ' ' was presented to Captain Jordan of the 
 colored troops, and in response to the presentation the colored 
 commandant delivered " one of his most felicitous speeches." It 
 was not stated whether the ' ' fine war flag ' ' was ornamented with 
 the stars and bars or whether it was of some other design. It ij 
 also historically narrated that about Februaiy, 1862, able-bodied 
 colored men — contrabands, so-called — were taken to Richmond, 
 formed into regiments and armed for the defense of that cit}-. It 
 is also known that Gen. Mansfield Lovell and Gen. Ruggles, in 
 command at New Orleans prior to the advance of Gen . Benjamin 
 F. Butler upon that cit}-, from the direction of the gulf, had in 
 their command a regiment composed of fourteen hundred men of 
 color . 
 
 The fact of the enlistment of colored soldiers in the service of 
 the insurrectionary states veiy probabl}^ had its influence upon the 
 authorities at Washington, inducing the acceptance of negro 
 troops in the Union service. At the beginning Mr. Lincoln hesi- 
 tated in respect to his duty in placing arms in the hands of 
 negroes. Others doubted the prudence of such a step, and it was 
 the logic of circumstances rather than of deliberate design which 
 
16 
 
 VAUGHAN*S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 opened the way for the formation of negro regiments in support 
 of the Union cause. In 1862 Secretary of War Cameron author- 
 ized Gen. W. T. Sherman to accept the services of "loyal per- 
 sons ' ' who desired to aid in the suppression of rebellion in the 
 vicinity of Port Royal. Gen. David Hunter very soon succeeded 
 Gen. Sherman, and he found the authority given his predecessor 
 among the military papers upon the files of his office. Gen. 
 Hunter interpreted the authority to accept the services of " loyal 
 persons " in a liberal spirit, and thereupon proceeded to enroll a 
 regiment of blacks, which he officered with wliite men of recog- 
 nized military skill and ability. The arming of the slaves in 
 South Carolina opened a new feature in the progress of the war 
 and occasioned manifest surprise in the halls of congress. The 
 Hon. Charles A. Wicklilfe, of Kentucky, introduced in the House 
 of Representatives a resolution of inquiry respecting the action of 
 Gen. Ilunter, which called forth a formal correspondence between 
 Edwin M. Stanton, the successor of Mr. Cameron in the War De- 
 partment, and the Hon. Galusha A. Grow, then Speaker of the 
 House. The conditions which prompted the course of Gen. 
 Hunter were fully stated and the action of the General was fully 
 approved. In regard to the effectiveness of the colored troops 
 thus brought into the service of the Union army, Gen. Hunter 
 spoke in the highest terms of praise. He said: "The experiment 
 oi arming the blacks, so far as I have made it, has been a com- 
 plete and even a marvelous success. They are sober, docile, at- 
 tentive and enthusiastic, displaying great natural capacities for 
 acquiring the duties of the soldier. They are eager beyond all 
 things to take the field and be led into action, and it is the unani- 
 mous opinion of the officers who have had charge of them that, in 
 the peculiarities of this climate and country, they will prove in- 
 valuable auxiliaries, fully equal to similar regiments so long 
 and successfully used by the British authorities in the West India 
 Islands." Gen. Hunter concluded his answer to Mr. Wickliffe's 
 congressional resolution by saying that he hoped to be able to 
 present to the Government from forty-eight to fifty thousand of 
 hardy, devoted negro soldiers by the next autumn. This fondly 
 expressed hope was not realized, but of the gallant black soldiers 
 who did enlist under the banner of the Union there were none who 
 failed to do valiant service for a restored Union and in the cause 
 of the freedom of their race . 
 
 When Gen. Hunter's communication to Secretary Stanton was 
 read before the House of Representatives, Congressman Dunlap 
 
YAUGHAX S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 17 
 
 offered a resolution of censure because of the sentiments expressed 
 therein; but the resohition was not then acted upon, and reflection 
 no doubt satisfied Mr. Dunlap of the unwisdom of his proposed 
 censure. At least he did not again call the attention of theHou*e 
 to the subject. AVhile the censure was not voted, the important 
 facts narrated b}' the distinguished soldier began bearing fruit in 
 an unexpected quarter. Two senators of the United States called 
 upon President Lincoln and proffered to him the services of two 
 full}" equipped negro regiments, which the president did not feel 
 authorized to have mustered into the Union service. One senator 
 allowed his angry passions to arise, and very impudently told Mr. 
 Lincoln that he hoped to God he would resign from the chief 
 magistrac}" and let some man succeed him who had a little back- 
 bone. The same senator was very glad to assent to tlie re-election 
 of Abraham Lincoln two 3'ears later. 
 
 A careful surve}^ of the difficulties that surrounded the intro- 
 duction of tlie despised 1;)lackman into the ofhce of a soldier gives, 
 even at this late day, some idea of the x^rejudices which had to be 
 overcome in order to save the union of the states from threatened 
 dissolution. Thousands were precipitate and impracticable, and 
 other thousands were diffident and impracticable. But in the 
 meantime the negro stood ready to do his part; and although some 
 statesmen were doubtful and hesitating, and others importunate 
 and exacting, the sulijects of solicitude were preparing to strike 
 for the x^Grpetuity of the government of their devotion. A 
 thousand enthusiastic lovers of their own race, as well as of the 
 flag they had known as the emblem of freedom to the white race, 
 stood banded together in pursuance of Gen. Hunter's recognition 
 of their right of enlistment; and the}^ succeeded in finding their 
 wa}" into tlie general military service under an emergency. Sec- 
 retary Stanton wrote Gen. Saxton saying that "in view of jouv 
 command and the inability of the government at the present time 
 to increase it in order to guard the plantations and settlements 
 from invasion, and to protect the inhabitants thereof from cap- 
 tivity and in^^asion by the enemy, you are authorized to arm, 
 uniform, and equip and receive in.o the service of the United 
 States such number of volunteers of African descent as you may 
 deem expedient, not exceeding five thousand," etc. That order 
 enabled Gen. Saxton to get his waiting regiments into service. It 
 enabled him to organize five other regiments. It deprived the 
 rebellion of the direct support of the men who might otherwise 
 have cultivated the fields and raised crops for the sustenance of 
 
18 
 
 VAUGHAN S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 southern armies. It opened a new field for the negro, and charged 
 him with a grand importance in crippling the power of the white 
 master, and enabling the black serf to do his part in bringing an 
 armed rebellion to final confusion and ultimate defeat. President 
 Lincoln withdrew reluctantly from the position he originalh^ 
 assumed in opposition to the equipment of negro troops, and 
 finally gave countenance to orders issued from the war department 
 authorizing the formation of negro regiments. 
 
 As a matter of history, it may be stated that before the date 
 of accepting distinctive negro companies or regiments in the 
 service of the Union arm}^, many colored men were enlisted in the 
 service in their individual capacit}^, notabl}^ in eastern regiments. 
 The state of Massachusetts, for instance, authorized such enlist- 
 ments and received recruits from other states which were credited 
 upon the quota of enlistments necessary to exempt the Old Ba}^ 
 State from the provisions of the draft laws enacted by Congress. 
 Colored volunteers were recruited in Indiana, and perhaps in 
 many other states, and sent to Massachusetts in order that they 
 might be mustered into the Union service without objection being 
 raised on account of color. It has never been learned that those 
 soldiers failed to prove less efficient, resolute, brave and daring 
 than the most courageous and valiant of the white enlisted men . 
 
 Throughout the South it was found that negroes flocked in 
 numbers to Union encampments, beyond the facilities of army 
 officers to equip them for military service, as Union troops ad- 
 vanced into tlie heart of the Confederacy. Those who had been 
 reared in the extreme South, or in the very center of the cotton 
 belt, manifested an intense desire to take up arms in behalf of the 
 Union cause far in excess of the colored element along the border 
 and in proximity to the free states. It required months of war 
 and excitement to instill into the minds of those negroes, far re- 
 moved from contact with northern men and northern sentiment, 
 the fact that a military revolution was in progress that must 
 necessarily terminate in a marked change touching their political 
 relations. Once convinced, however, of the truth, the negro 
 proved to be an important and willing factor in bringing final 
 success to the Union cause. 
 
 As early as the month of June, 1862, negroes flocked to the 
 encampment of Gen. Phelps, who had made his way into the rural 
 regions of Louisiana. While resting from the fatigue of hurried 
 marches and almost continual skirmish fighting, in the vicinit}^ of 
 Carrollton, the General found his camp crowded daily with fresh 
 
YArGHAX's PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 19 
 
 fugitives from the captivit}' of slaveiy. He could not support 
 them in idleness, and a sense of the great work in hand forbade 
 the return of the fugitives to the possession of masters from Avhom 
 they had escaped. He therefore afforded protection to such as 
 manifested a willingness to shoulder a musket and endure the 
 vicissitude of war as a recompense for personal libertv. The con- 
 dition of his surroundings was made known offlciallv by Gen. 
 French to Gen. Butler, who was then in command at New 
 Orleans, and the propriety was suggested of recommending that 
 the cadet graduates from AVest Point be sent into the South to 
 organize and discipline negro levies, so as to make them efficient 
 soldiers for use in the pending war. Ver}-^ clearl}^ Gen. Butler did 
 not like the suggestion. He advised the emplojnnent of "contra- 
 bands," as he called them, for fatigue duty, but forbade their em- 
 ployment in the capacity of soldiers. In writing to Gen. Butler, 
 under date of Jul}^ 31, 18G2, it will be found that Gen . Phelps 
 said: "I am not willing to become the mere slave-driver you 
 propose, having no qualifications that wav." Thereupon he re- 
 signed his commission and backed out of the war. 
 
 It will be seen, in the circumstances just narrated, as well as 
 in the diffidence of the president and others high in civil authority, 
 that the ambition of the negro to fight for his freedom was handi- 
 capped at almost ever}' point. When the slaves found that a vig- 
 orous prosecution of the war meant a speedv reduction of the re- 
 volted states to the recognition of a supreme American Union, 
 under which the permanent freedom of their race would have am- 
 ple guarantee, their anxiet}-^ to take a hand in the great fray was 
 intensified in everj^ quarter. Their appeals to do service forced a 
 hearing in the halls of Congress. The failure of the Army of the 
 Potomac to capture Richmond, after seven davs of blood-red car- 
 nage, no doubt had a tendency in the direction of inducing Con- 
 gress to make use of all the elements at command which seemed to 
 promise a speed}' peace. To this end the Hon. Henr}' AVilson, 
 chairman of the senate committee on militarv affairs, introduced a 
 bill, July 16, 1862, empowering the President to accept all per- 
 sons of African descent, for the purpose of constructing intrench- 
 ments or performing camp service, or any war service for which 
 they may be found competent! The peculiar phraseology of the 
 Wilson bill gave color to the idea that, even as late as midsummer 
 1862, the ability of the negro to make a good soldier was seriously 
 questioned by high authority in the senate of the United States. 
 Most truly the willing and anxious man of color had a hard time 
 
20 . vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 proving his right to fight the battles of liis countr}?^ in a war that 
 involved his own libert}^ and the freedom of all the people of 
 his race. 
 
 It was not until the winter of 1863 that official action was taken 
 authorizing the enlistment of distinctivelj^ negro regiments. An 
 order was issued by the secretary of war, January 26, 1863, au- 
 thorizing Gov. Andrew, of Massachusetts, to raise two regiments 
 of negro troops to serve two years. Accordingly the Fifty-fourth 
 Massachusetts was organized and equipped, and was mustered into 
 the military service May 13, 1863, being the first complete regi- 
 ment of negro troops called to duty in quelling the rebellion. It 
 was ordered to proceed to South Carolina, but so great was the 
 prejudice at the North against negro soldiers that the chief of 
 police in the city of New York informed the war department 
 that he feared the regiment would be subjected to insult in case it 
 passed through that metropolis. However, his fears appear to have 
 been groundless, as the regiment passed on its way rejoicing. 
 About the same time Adjutant General Thomas personally took 
 charge of the business of organizing negro regiments from among 
 the contraband negroes gathered at and near military encampments 
 along the lower Mississippi, and October 13, of the same year, 
 Gen. Thomas authorized his assistant. Gen. E. D. Townsend, to 
 issue a general order providing for the enlistment and equipment 
 of negro troops. This was the first general recognition of the 
 negroes to become soldiers of the republic at all times and in all 
 places where recruiting was carried forward; and the third article 
 of General Order No. 329 provided that "all persons enlisted into 
 the military service shall forever thereafter be free." 
 
 This was the first absolute proclamation of emancipation issued 
 in the great civil war. Following its promulgation the enlistment 
 of colored soldiers went forward with alacrity in every quarter. 
 Within sixty days 2,300 negro troops were enlisted in New York 
 city, and by December 4, 1863 (about fifty days after the issuance 
 of Gen. Thomas' order) three full regiments of regulars had been 
 mustered into the United States service at Camp William Penn 
 near Philadelphia. Subsequently six other regiments were 
 recruited at the same place. From all quarters reports of enlist- 
 ments of colored troops go to show that fully one hundred 
 thousand men had responded to the call of the country b}^ the 
 ©pening of the year 1864, and fully half that number had beem 
 mustered into service. They stood with guns in their hands readj 
 to fight for freedom at the drop of a hat. 
 
vaughan's plea for the old slates. 
 
 2t 
 
 The history of the great civil war is rich iii its testimony of 
 the patriotism of the negro and liis devotion to the Union cause, 
 after he had learned the real purpose of the struggle and the gov- 
 ernment had receded from its rigidity against the emplo^'ment of 
 colored troops for the suppression of the rebellion. The record 
 made by the negroes entitles the race to grand recognition. By 
 the time of Lee's surrender 186.(117 had done honorable service in 
 the Union army. Of tliis number the New England states fur- 
 nished 7.916 troops; the three states of Xew Jerse}', Xew York 
 and Pennsylvania furnished 13.922; the western states and terri- 
 tories furnished 12.711; and the southern states (including the 
 District of Columbia. 3,269) furnished 108,755 good and true 
 men. In this splendid record the army rolls record the fact tha': 
 there were 13 colonels. 27 lieutenant-colonels. -42 majors, 256 
 captains. 292 first lieutenants and 479 second lieutenants. Evi- 
 dently the negro got to the front as rapidly as circumstances 
 afforded him an opportunity. 
 
 In stating the obstacles that stood in the way of the negro race 
 being able to don the blue, and wear it with honor, no reflection 
 has been made upon the Government, which was slow to accept the 
 service of armed negroes as soldiers of the republic. The presi- 
 dent and his advisors merely followed a line of policy that was 
 co-eval with the existence of the republic. Mr. Lincoln did not 
 wish to place the colored race in a difficult position. On the con- 
 trary his feeling was most kindly; but he found himself in an 
 abnormal position. As the representative of an anti-slaver^^ 
 sentiment he was made president: but his election did not con- 
 template more than prudent measures to prevent the spread of the 
 slave institution. The abolition of slavery b}' means of federal 
 encroachment upon state authority was an idea that had never 
 entered his mind, and he would have rejected the thought with 
 indignation had it been suggested to him as a measure of policy or 
 right. AVhen the time for universal freedom came he wa? ready 
 for the emergency, but he did not seek it. The war came on; Mr. 
 Lincoln accepted the negro as an element that might be instru- 
 mental in the salvation of the Union, and his confidence was not 
 misplaced. Over nearh' incomprehensible objections the negro 
 became a soldier while the war was yet raging between the Xorth 
 and South. Xow look to the record he made as a soldier. 
 
 The first black regiment enlisted for the war was the First 
 South Carolina, commanded by Col. Higginson. Its first material 
 service was an expedition to the St. John's River country, ia. 
 
22 
 
 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 Florida, where it was met by sturdy resistance from southerm 
 troops, intensified by a natural repugnance of southern white men 
 against confronting negroes with arms in hands. In all its 
 skirmishes the South Carolina troops met with good success. In 
 recounting the results of his expedition the colonel commanding 
 said in every instance his troops came off with unblemished honor 
 and undisputed triumph, and the men had even appealed to him 
 for permission to pursue the flying enemy. His colored troops 
 were brave even unto a fault. No wanton destruction was per- 
 mitted, and no outrages occurred during the expedition. In his 
 official report Col. Higginson said: "No officer of the regiment 
 now doubts that the successful prosecution of the war now lies in 
 the unlimited employment of black troops." 
 
 At the investment of Port Hudson, in May, 1863, the First 
 Louisiana regiment, organized at New Orleans, under the direction 
 of Gen. Butler, was given a prominent position. Col. Stafford 
 addressed the troops saying: "Protect, defend, die for, but do 
 not surrender the regimental flag." The color-bearer. Sergeant 
 Planciancois , responded: "Colonel, I will bring these colors back 
 to you in honor, or report to God the reason why." When asked 
 if he could take a certain battery in an engagement of the war of 
 1812, a brave American officer modestly replied, "I will try, sir," 
 and he took it. His historic words were not more brave than 
 those of Sergeant Planciancois at the siege of Port Hudson. 
 
 In the official report of the reduction of Port Hudson General 
 Banks said: "On the extreme right I posted the First and Third 
 regiments of negro troops. The First regiment of Louisiana 
 engineers composed exclusively of colored men, excepting the 
 officers, was also engaged in the operations of the day. The 
 position occupied by these troops was one of importance, and 
 called for the utmost steadiness and bravery in those to whom it 
 was confided. It gives me pleasure to report that they answered 
 every expectation. Their conduct was heroic. No troops could 
 be more determined or more daring. They made, during the 
 day, three charges upon the batteries of the enemy, suffering very 
 heavy losses,* and holding their position at nightfall with the 
 other troops on the right of our line. The highest commendation 
 is bestowed upon them by all the officers in command on the right. 
 Whatever doubt may have existed before as to the efficiency of 
 organizations of this character, the history of this day proves 
 conclusively to those who were in a condition to observe the con- 
 duct of these regiments, that the government will find in this 
 
vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 23 
 
 class of troops effective supporters and defenders. The severe 
 test to which they were subjected, and the determined manner in 
 which they encountered the enemy. leave upon my mind no doubt 
 of their ultimate success. They require only good officers, 
 commands of limited numbers, and careful discipline, to make 
 them excellent soldiers."' On the strength of the charges of the 
 negro soldiers at Port Hudson upon Confederate batteries, George 
 H. Baker wrote and puljlislied a poem after the style of *• The 
 Charge of the Six Hundred,"' which fully rivals that noble pro- 
 duction in excellency. 
 
 At the Battle of 3Iilliken"s Bend. June 6, 1863, 3,000 
 confederates attacked the command of Gen. Dennis, composed 
 in the m-ain of about 1.250 black troops. The latter held their 
 ground, and such was their heroism in action that their gallantry 
 excited general commendation in Union circles. Gentlemen 
 connected with the Confederate service freely acknowledged that 
 negroes, armed with death dealing weapons and led by experi- 
 enced commanders, constituted a soldiery that would challenge 
 the admiration of the world. 
 
 Along the coast of South Carolina, and to the southward, the 
 naval victories of the Union forces were aided in accomplishment 
 by negroes, and might have been impossible but for the brave 
 work of enlisted men of color who there made a record which has 
 become imperishable. The soldiers who figured in these engage- 
 ments were enlisted, in a large measure, pursuant to the directions 
 of Governor Andrew, of Massachusetts, and direct communication 
 was made with the Governor touching the bravery of the troops 
 he had put in the field in his capacity as governor of the state. 
 It may be truly said that all ofiicial reports on record, of those 
 engagements wherem negro soldiers participated, that a perfection 
 of gallantry has been awarded to black soldiers who took up arms 
 in the deep hour of their country's distress. 
 
 Following the recognized success of the government in making 
 perfect soldiers of men relieved from the bond of slavery- , and of 
 other colored men who had borne arms in the Department of the 
 South and in the region of country contiguous to the lower Missis- 
 sippi river, the enlistment of colored troops was accepted as the 
 policy of the government in other fields of the great war. Thej 
 participated in the later engagements of the Army of the Potomac, 
 and largely composed the forces of Gen. IVild, who achieved a 
 substantial success over Gen. Fitzhugh Lee in the battle of Wil- 
 son^s Wharf. From the date of the introduction of colored soldiers 
 
24 vaugiixVn's tlea fof the old slaves. 
 
 Ill the Army of the Potomac all opposition to the participation of 
 such troops in the war subsided, and they were welcomed in all 
 departments alike by officers in command and by their white com- 
 rades in arms. In his official report of the engagement at Isash- 
 ville, Gen. James B. Steedman said that fully twenty-five per 
 cent . of the Union losses were suffered b}^ colored troops . He 
 placed upon record the declaration that he was unable to discover 
 that color made any difference in the fighting capacity of the troops 
 under his command. lie remarked that white and black nobly did 
 their duty as soldiers, evincing alike cheerfulness and resolution 
 in the discharge of duty. The antipathy of white soldiers against 
 their black comrades in arms appears to have subsided under the 
 pressure of mutual dangers and their joint struggles for the success 
 of the Union cause. 
 
 The troops commanded b}^ Gen . Birney in the East were largely 
 made up of colored enlistments, and no part of the army made a 
 better record for gallantry or soldierly conduct. Gen. Lorenzo 
 Thomas gave cheerful evidence to the fact that in the western 
 armies most heroic service was performed by enlisted blacks at 
 Paducali and Columbus, Ky.; at Memphis, Tenn.; at A'^icksburg 
 and Natchez, Miss.; at the works around New Orleans; at the 
 Bridge of Moscow on the Memphis and Corinth line of railwa^^, 
 and at the investment of Fort Pillow, where colored men were 
 babtized unto freedom in rivers of blood. 
 
 It is unnecessar}^ to make special mention of the barbarity of 
 the massacre of colored men at Fort Pillow further than to say 
 that it has been condemned by the sense of the civilized world. 
 It was inhuman in the highest degree. Gen. Chalmers, who was 
 directly responsible for the butchery, appears to have been for- 
 given for his merciless order of "no quarter" by the black people 
 of the South, inasmuch as thousands of them have repeatedly 
 voted for his election to Congress since the era of reconstruction ; 
 but there does not appear to have been unanimity among the col- 
 ored voters in this respect, for the savage general has been regu- 
 larly defeated at the polls in recent years . 
 
 It is unnecessary to follow the colored citizen of the United 
 States further than has been done in the preceding pages with a 
 view of according to him gallantry in arms. The sentiment of 
 the American people has, long ago, settled in the line of admission 
 that the negro was a brave, cool and disciplined soldier in all 
 theaters of the great civil war wherein he had been afforded a fair 
 opportunity for the development of his powers. 
 
VAUGHAN S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES 
 
 25 
 
 In civil life he has shown his capacity for self-government. 
 In the senate of the United States H. E. Revels and Blanche K. 
 Bruce, both of Mississippi, have given a good reputation to the 
 colored people for a high order of abilit}'. The same may be said 
 of Jere Haralson and J. T. Rapier, of Alabama; J. F. Long, of 
 Georgia; C.E. Xash. of Louisiana; J. R. Lynch, of Mississippi; 
 B. S. Turner, of Xorth Carolina; R. H. Cain, R. C. DeLarge, 
 R. B. Elliott, Joseph H. Rainey, A. J. Ransier and Robert Smalls, 
 of South Carolina: and J. T. Walls, of Virginia, all of ^^dioni have 
 appeared in past years upon the floor of the house of representa- 
 tives. Among the able diplomats ^'lio have reflected credit upon 
 the American name abroad may be named Dr. Henry Highland 
 Garnett, Prof. J. Milton Turner, Ebenezer D. Bassett, Jolin M. 
 Langston (iiov,- in congress), John H. Smith, and the world 
 renowned Frederick Douglass. In the affairs of their respective 
 states a large number of the colored men have done the people 
 good service as members of the State Legislatures, Xorth and 
 Southland in many local positions. Promin.ent among the last 
 named class may be mentioned Sidney B. Hint on, of Indiana, who 
 was elected to the office of Canal Commissioner b}' the general 
 assembly in 1873, and afterwards became a member of the House 
 of Representatives from the capital city and county of that state. 
 AVhcn Mr. Hinton was elected to the office of canal commissioner 
 one of his confreres upon the canal board was Thomas Dowling, 
 a gentleman of wealth and distinction, whose personal record had 
 encompassed a generous portion of the early history of the 
 Hoosier commonwealth. Being approached by a small-fry politi- 
 cian, whose aim was to badger Mr. Dowling upon the contingency 
 that required him to recognize a colored man as his political 
 equal, the diminutive politician said: 
 
 ••I congratulate you. Col. Dowling, upon being obliged to sit 
 upon the canal board as the co-partner of Sid Hinton. How do 
 you like a seat by a nigger anyhow 
 
 Col. Dowling instantly replied: '*! feel complimented, sir. 
 I have known Mr. Hinton for twenty years, and I am honored in 
 being placed at his side above what I would have been had you 
 been elected canal commissioner instead of him. AVliile he has de- 
 voted his time, talents and money towards the elevation of his race 
 you have done your utmost to drag your race down . ' ' 
 
 This interesting dialogue at once came to a conclusion, and 
 Col. Tom Dowling was not again molested with an insinuation 
 that he had been obliged to recognize the political equality of a 
 
26 
 
 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 "nig-ger." Indeed it may be said that similar reflections upon the 
 propriety of complete justice being done to the African race 
 speedily died out when it became known that the negro was doing 
 his utmost to merit the boon of freedom with which he had sud- 
 denly become clothed. 
 
 Even after more than a quarter of a century of freedom bestowed 
 upon the men and women who were released from slavery by thq 
 direful arbitrament of arms, there is an influential and educated 
 class of well meaning people who seem to doubt the capacity of 
 the negro for self government. If such a doubt can rightfully 
 exist, it only furnishes the most forcible reason that can possibly 
 be assigned, why the general government and the state govern- 
 ments should exert ever}^ effort at the command of the people, tq 
 remove such a frightful disqualification from a mass of citizens in 
 whose hands the ballot has been placed by the authority of the 
 Federal Constitution. A free government can only be maintained 
 upon a basis of general intelligence. The federal census, now 
 being compiled, will probabl}' show that the negro population ol 
 the United States amounts to one-nintli of the entire inhabitancy 
 of all the states and territories. The black race is increasing in 
 numbers more rapidl}^, in relative strength, in this country than 
 the white race. AYith these facts confronting us it may be well 
 to ask whether extraordinary measures are not absolutely 
 demanded, looking to the lifting up in the scale of intelligence 
 of a people who must continue to be a powerful fraction of our 
 people for generations to come. Give to these men absolute 
 justice. Pay them a stipend of their earnings during the years 
 of their involuntary service. Place before them the means of 
 bettering their condition . When released from penury they will 
 be willing to accept a higher life, and to do their part in sus- 
 taining a government that has been just and fair to them. Give 
 to them a measure of pension which is their national right. 
 
 During the present year a deliberative body known as the 
 ''First Mohonk Conference on the Negro Question," assembled at 
 Lake Mohonk and engaged in a solemn discussion of the negro 
 problem. It was accorded to the negro, by all X)articipants in 
 debate, that he was no weakling, and that his future must be 
 determined in a sense of strict justice. One of the orators, Rev. 
 A. D. Mayo, while assenting to the proposition that the negro 
 was radical in his views, went on to say that he was also a very 
 politic member of the communit}^, in the endurance of that which 
 he could not overcome, and in his tactful and even crafty appro- 
 
VAUG-HAX'S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLATES. 
 
 27 
 
 priation of all opportunities. He lias, as the reverend gentleman 
 freely admitted, pushed in at every open door, listened while 
 attending at the white man's table, himg about the church and 
 hustings^ taken in the celebration of the public occasion, and lie 
 has observed methods on election day even when he could not 
 vote. He has been all eyes and ears, and even the pores of his 
 skin have been open to the incoming of a x^i'actical education in 
 life. Depri^'ed. in a large meastire, of the use of books, because 
 of his inability to absorb their contents, and not possessing the 
 ordinary apparatus of instruction, he has eagerly applied the cir- 
 cumstances of actual life, as it has come before him, to the better- 
 ment of his own condition ; and in very many respects he has 
 ma le the application much more successfully than many of the 
 " superior race " ' who have not been obliged to contend with a 
 life of serritude in their struggle for existence. The negro has 
 been called a creature of imitation. All men are such, in a 
 certain degree, but it must be admitted that in the case of the 
 black man his imitations have been vastly helpful to his personal 
 condition. 
 
 As the years pass by the resident negroes of the South, who 
 were once slaves, will naturally become land-owners and the hold- 
 ers in fee of the homesteads Avhereon they reside. 3Iany of them 
 will become men of wealth as some have already done. The suc- 
 ceeding pages of this volume will indicate a few of many instances 
 wherein the negro has raised himself from the cabin of slave days 
 to opulence and high influence in church, school and state. As a 
 class the southern negroes have no more idea of going to Africa 
 than they have of tmdcrtaking a journey to the nnjcai. Neither 
 will they generally cohjuize into black communities, se^jarate and 
 apart from the white people. They are mliabitants of the repub- 
 lic, and by reason of habit and inclination they will remain in the 
 land that has given them birth, and where home scenes and cus- 
 toms attach them to their surroundings. It is a part of the duty 
 which societ}' owes to them that they should be liberally assisted in 
 making their conditions harmonious and conducive to the general 
 welfare. 
 
 The conference at Lake Mohonk might have done a great deal 
 for the weal of the negro, and incidentally for the welfare of 
 society, had the delegates discussed, in a calm and dispassionate 
 manner, the prctpriety of giving to the emancipated slaves a pen- 
 sion out of the plethoric treasury of the government. A discus- 
 sion of mean- designed to benefit this class will find a responsire 
 
28 
 
 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 echo in the breasts of the black people beyond any high-flown 
 resolutions respecting their moral condition or the supply of 
 tracts and printed arguments upon abstruse questions. As the 
 Lake Mohonk conference appears to be a permanent assembly, 
 intended to have its annual meetings, it is very respectfully sug- 
 gested that the next convocation shall devote its time to the 
 discussion of practical questions. 
 
 In his line of discourse Dr. Mayo justly remarked that the old 
 slaves were Southerners in their feelings and instincts. They were 
 nearly unanimous in their devotion to the Union cause in a time of 
 war, and are so yet. They always will be. But in this respect 
 they do not differ from the white people of the South, in tne 
 present day , for the Union sentiment is now universal. Bi;c the 
 negroes are Southerners, just as the residents of Massachusetts or 
 Connecticut are Kew Englanders or the inhabitants of Nebraska 
 are western people. As the political issues of the past fade into 
 the distance the negro race will, more and more, act in all public 
 affairs with the leading race with whom their companionship and 
 direct interest belong. With proper encouragement and education 
 the man emancipated from slavery will rise to his proper place in 
 our great American family. But let the nation be just to him as 
 it has been just to the soldiers of the Union. 
 
 It is undeniable that the northern people who have organized 
 societies and collected contributions for the betterment of the 
 condition of the southern negroes, have looked to the enlargement 
 of the religious elements, to which the contributors were denomi- 
 nationally attached, rather than to the elevation of the negro as a 
 man. The negro does not require aid in order that the Methodist 
 church, the Baptist church or any other church may be made 
 numerically strong. He simply stands before the country ds a 
 petitioner for justice. Against the law of God and of humanity 
 he has been held in bondage, and a great civil commotion has 
 made him a free man. He is willing to accept all the agencies that 
 the churches may organize for his spiritual advancement, and, as 
 far as his innate piety goes, to extend thanks to the Almighty for 
 a safe guide unto a better life. But at the same time he stands as 
 a suppliant for justice. Over the pages of more than three 
 centuries of American history there has been written the curse of 
 slavery, of which the black man was the cruel victim. His 
 servitude begot that degree of watchful care which is inseparable 
 from self-interest. When the slave was sick he was provided 
 with medical attendance; when he was hungry he was fed; when 
 
VAUGHAN S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 29 
 
 his clothes became threadbare, new habits were provided; when 
 the continual strain of drudgerj^ became irksome and detrimental 
 a holiday was given with all the enlivening appendages of jollit}'- 
 and abundant humor. In a word the interest of the master 
 required the creature comfort of his slave to be considered as a 
 matter of prime importance. With emancipation the master's 
 care of self-interest ceased . The government righted a great wrong 
 by turning out the old slave to starve and die! 
 
 Instead of devising ways and means to secure the negro in his 
 political rights, if these have ever been invaded, let the govern- 
 ment of the United vStates take steps to habilitate the ex-slave 
 with a sense of personal right which naturalh' attaches to his 
 condition as a freeman, *and to do that a reasonable recompense 
 for the years of toil he suffered as a slave will be an act that will 
 cast off much of this memor}^ of his wrongs and will prove an 
 incentive to the exercise of the duties and responsibilities devolv- 
 ing upon manhood . The man who feels that his government has 
 been just to him is not likely to be inactive when the government 
 points to an honorable service which he can perform in his 
 capacit}^ as a citizen for the honor of his countr}^. Instead of 
 quarreling and wrangling when he approaches the polls to deposit 
 his ballot he will go as an orderty citizen, meeting political 
 friends and antagonists with equal composure and confidence, and 
 with a heartfelt prayer that the best cause ma}^ win. It is 
 injustice that breeds bad feeling. A proper recognition of the 
 claims of former slaves for pension b}^ the government will 
 obliterate the last trace of enmity that has resulted from our sad 
 civil commotion and terrible appeal to arms. The North and the 
 South will be a unit again. 
 
 In this hastih^ prepared SKCtch it has been imperfectl}^ shown 
 that negro slaver}^ was planted upon Americon soil before the col- 
 onies had dissolved their dependency upon the British govern- 
 ment. It has been shown that the parent government made the 
 institution of slaver}^ a fixture against the wishes of the people of 
 the colonies. It has been sought to be established that the negro, 
 in the da^^s of slaver}^, was generally' a tractable and obedient sub- 
 ject of his lawfulh' constituted masters. It has been set forth 
 that, when the horrors of civil war began, a ver}^ large propor- 
 tion of the negro slaves of the South felt disposed to espouse the 
 cause of their masters, and man}' of them voluntarih' engaged in 
 acts of war in support of the rebellion. It has been the aim to 
 make manifest the fact that when the black people became 
 
30 
 
 VALGHAN S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 thoroughl}^ apprised that the advance of the Union armies carried 
 with it freedom to the slaves they fell into a support of the Union " 
 cause with enthusiasm and stood ready to shed their blood under 
 the stars and stripes . It has been made plain that the government 
 was slow to accept the service of black men as soldiers of the 
 republic, but that they proved themselves equal to the occasion 
 whenever they were allowed to do service, under arms, in their 
 country's cause. It has been proven that many of the race have 
 demonstrated a high order of ability, and that they have made a 
 worth}^ record in Congress and in the diplomatic and consular 
 service of the government. 
 
 What the negro now requires is that kind of recognition which 
 will give him an independence begotten of 'his former condition as 
 a slave, wherein he performed his part nobly and well, so that his 
 freedom may prove a blessing to future generations instead of an 
 absolute curse. It is not questioned that great encouragement has 
 been given negroes in providing means for their education and 
 placing them in an attitude to assert their rights and do their duty 
 as freemen. But this service to men made free under such circum- 
 stances as surrounded the emancipation of southern slaves falls far 
 short of a just recompense to men who suffered generations of 
 servitude in consequence of no sin of their own commission. No 
 act that can now be done will place the old slaves and their 
 descendants in an attitude of equality, before the law, with those 
 white men of the nation to whom the laws once gave the fruits of 
 negro labor and the benefit of negro lives of unrecompensed toil. 
 
 It is respectfully submitted to the law-makers of the land that 
 the hour has arrived when the men and women who have been set 
 free without support, and without capital necessary to acquire 
 such support, ought to be cared for. In the name of freedom, 
 thousands, 3^ea millions, were turned away from comfortable homes 
 and sent adrift to provide for themselves. In how many instances 
 were the}^ old and poor ? In their humble homes they said , one 
 to another, when they found the blessing of freedom to be a pos- 
 sibility for them and their children, "it surel}^ must be the work of 
 the Lord," and on bended knees many a devout heart prayed 
 earnestly for deliverance. Those same pious souls, when deliver- 
 ance actually came, returned thanks to heaven for the sense of 
 liberty that pervaded the land and gave assurance to their own 
 hearts that they were free men and women. The}^ asked nothing 
 more of their country in that da}^ than the privilege of eating the 
 bread that supported life wi.h a perfect knowledge that it was 
 
VAUGHAN^S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 31 
 
 their very own, earned by toil to the fruits whereof no person 
 other than themselves could make a lawful claim. Such a thought 
 was a new sensibility to a people whose lives had been in ceaseless 
 subjection to a master's rule, and the}^ were quite willing to take 
 up the burden of life without a complaint that the}^ hnd no facili- 
 ties in their new relations for the making of life enjoyable or even 
 tolerable. But because the}^ accepted freedom with light hearts it 
 cannot be said that the dut}^ the government owes to its wards is 
 any the less sacred, and certainly that duty is not less obligatory 
 after the lapse of a generation in consequence of the long and 
 cruel dela}^. 
 
 The theory is tenable, and will scarcel}^ be questioned, that 
 emancipation resulted as a military necessit}^ rather than as a 
 political or social benefit conferred upon the recipients as a meas- 
 ure of justice and humanity. The slaver}^ to which the negro was 
 subject in ante-bellum da3^s was hereditary, and founded in ancient 
 error of government. But when that same negro became a nomi- 
 nal freeman without provision being made for him to engage in 
 the battle of life on a footing approaching something like equality 
 with others who sell their labor in the general market, in order 
 that they may acquire dail}^ maintenance and reasonable indepen- 
 dence, it must be apparent that he would suffer in the unequal 
 contest. He has been kept in a condition of vassalage but little 
 removed from the bondage formerl}^ endured. lie has been made 
 the prey of many heartless employers, because of his ignorance of 
 business methods, and of myriads of designing politicians because 
 of his insufficient knowledge of political econom}^. Give him the 
 means of reasonable independence and half the evils that surround 
 his present condition will be removed. In the bestowment of such 
 a gift the government Avill only discharge a part of the obligation 
 it owes for having made the negro a subject of taxation, like the 
 beasts of the field, during his 3^ears of involuntary servitude. 
 
 Since the day of the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee at 
 Appomattox, and the consequent knowledge that the freedom of 
 negroes held in slaver}^ before the war was assured by the failure 
 of the Confederate States to maintain their existence as a united 
 government, the question "What duty does the United States 
 owe to the emancipated slaves ? ' ' has received much thought and 
 ^tud}" on the part of the writer. Thoroughl}^ impressed with the 
 idea that the changed condition of freedmen demanded the protect- 
 ing care of the federal government, it was a source of information 
 to confer with men occup3dng eminent station in political affairs, 
 
32 vaughan's plea for the old slaves^. 
 
 in conversation and by personal correspondence, so as to gather 
 their views on this essential point. Aside from personal interviews 
 a great many statesmen were addressed by letter. Very little 
 satisfaction was imparted by those who were addressed in their 
 replies. In order to make this matter plain the following corres- 
 pondence is inserted: 
 
 FIRST THOUGHTS m THEIR BEHALF TWENTY YEARS AGO. 
 
 In 1870, then a resident of Council Bluffs, Iowa, I was called to 
 Selma, Ala., my former home, to see my sick father, a farmer 
 residing near that city, and while passing through Mississippi, I 
 wrote my wife the following letter: 
 
 On the cars in Mississippi, Jnl}^ 10th, 1870. 
 Mrs. Walter R. Vaughan, Council Bluffs, loiva. 
 
 My Dear Wife: — I am quite tired and it is very hot and dusty 
 riding. I want to see 3^ou and our baby boy Walter ver}^ much. 
 Will write 3^ou a long letter from Selma, Ala. Our cars are filled 
 with former Mississippi slaves. Some have a few dimes to pay fare 
 to the next station, others are forced to beg car fare. But few of 
 them are half dressed. The government should pension these ex- 
 slaves if the}^- would right a great wrong. They formerly had 
 good homes, were well fed, were provided with the best medical 
 attention in sickness, and since their freedom just the reverse has 
 been their portion. I do feel so sorry for the poor unfortunate 
 creatures. I shall feel guilty, as an American, to the crime of 
 enslaving them, until the government has paid them the debt 
 justly due. I will be in Selma at 10 a. m. to-morrow. Write. 
 Affectionatel3^ 3^our husband, 
 
 WALTER R. VAUGHAN. 
 
 letter of appeal. 
 
 Council Bluffs, Ia., July 10, 1883. 
 Dear Sir: The condition of persons who were once slaves, but 
 were made free by the proclamations of Abraham Lincoln during 
 the late war, and by the reconstruction of the civil governments 
 of the states recently in rebellion , has suggested to m}^ mind that 
 something more should be done for those freedmen than merely 
 declaring their personal liberty. Thousands of them have gone 
 forth from homes of comparative comfort into circumstances of 
 absolute penury. Of course the general declaration of freedom 
 could not be hampered with the widespread conditions of indi- 
 viduals who came within the per view of Mr. Lincoln's proclama- 
 
VAUGHAX's PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 33 
 
 tion. and hence an unconditional order of emancipation was a 
 necessity and an act of right. 
 
 It has occurred to me that tlie proper thing for the govern- 
 ment to do in tlie premises would be the placing of all ex -slaves 
 upon a civil pension list in a sum sufficient to enable them to live 
 without fear of certain want in their old age. The government 
 has suffered them to be taxed as chattels since its organization, 
 and as such they have contributed directly to the public support. 
 To right a great wrong the gOA^ernment can do no better . it seems 
 to me. than to make them pensioners for the residue of their ex- 
 istence, especially the aged and dependent. 
 
 I should be glad to learn vour sentiments touching the pro- 
 priety of the course proposed to be pursued, with any suggestion 
 you may see fit to make in the premises. I have in view an 
 elaborate discussion of the subject in a pamphlet or book. An 
 earl}^ repl}^ hereto will greatly oblige. 
 
 Yours very truly. 
 
 AY. E. YAUGHAX. 
 
 Among others to whom the foregoing letter was addressed, it 
 was mailed to the Hon. Benjamin Harrison, then a senator from 
 the state of Indiana and now president of the United States. After 
 a delay of something more than a month, the senator wrote as fol- 
 lows from his home in Indianapolis: 
 
 (See fac-simile letter on following page.) 
 
 UXITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 Ixd'pls, Ixd., Aug. 17, 1883. 
 W. R, VaygJian, Esq., Council Bluffs, luioa: 
 
 Dear Sir: Y^our letter in relation to the subject of the wrongs 
 of colored people, and your proposition for national aid for them, 
 has been received. I have not time to make any contribution to 
 the discussion of this subject myself. I will say, however, that I 
 think the most efficient way in which the government can aid the 
 colored people is by some provision in aid of education in the South. 
 
 Yours truly, Bexj. Harrisox. 
 
'ilCrnfcd '$)fcifc^ Sicncik^ 
 
 ^^■<cytr-c^ ^-yi.^^ir^ 
 
VArGHAX's PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVZ> 
 
 35 
 
 It can scarcel}- be said that C-ren. Harrison touched the point at 
 issue. Still his suggestion of educating the freedmen manifested a 
 kno^vledge of their dependent condition. Unfortunately the majur 
 part of tlie race ^'ere much too far advanced in life to I'ccome the 
 5ubje-cts of school-boy instruction. For the younger ones most of 
 the states have liberally provided school facilities, and it is a pleas- 
 ure to know that in the main the colored people of the southern 
 states, of the present generation, have enjoyed fair benefits of 
 education . 
 
 A letter similar to the above, perhaps an exact copy, ^vas 
 mailed to Senator Preston B. Plumb, of Kansas. That gentleman 
 furnished the follo^ring letter in reply: 
 
 fac-simile of sexatoPl rLUAin *5 reply. 
 
 'jJiTirHcb ^{aics ^cnate^ 
 
 X"^ ^ 
 
36 
 
 VAUGHAN S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 The suggestion made by Senator Plumb that before any steps 
 shall be taken to provide pensions for "able-bodied people, who 
 are quite capable of making a living," it is the duty of the gov- 
 ernment first to lake care of its disabled soldiers, is scarcely perti- 
 nent to the question under discussion. But as the soldiers have 
 been well provided with pensions, especially the unfortunate class 
 who suffered disabilities, there can be no room on that score for 
 withholding from the men who endured years of slavery, without 
 just cause, a recompense for the injustice they suffered for so many 
 years. The further remark of the senator, that "if all govern- 
 ments are to be held responsible for all damages resulting from the 
 passage and execution of laws, the unfortunate tax-payer would 
 
VAUGHAX'S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 37 
 
 be constrained to sell out," can scarcely have been well considered 
 by liim. The laws by which a race of people were enslaved for 
 hundreds of 3-ears certainly do not have a place by the side of 
 statutes that have occasioned trivial injuries or losses. Besides, 
 for inconsiderable personal injuries the courts have commonly 
 found means of redress, and the losses suffered have been adjusted 
 in countless instances. For the flagrant wrong of slavery the vic- 
 tims have not been paid one cent . 
 
 Another senator whose opinion was sought was the Hon. O. H. 
 Piatt, of Connecticut. In answer Senator Piatt wrote as follows: 
 
 i'AC-SIMILE OF SENATOR PLATT's LETTER. 
 ly ^ . ^ AC^I -Cc^ /^c^ ^>-»-£^.siAr^J 
 
 (-OA^ ^-^^h^^ U^TT^-IC ^ 
 
 ^ ^ c--if^^^^^ 
 
38 
 
 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 It will be plainl^^ seen that neither of the gentlemen, the fac- 
 simile of whose letters are given to the public in this volume, 
 appear to have entertained a high admiration for the proposition 
 to pension the ex-slaves. The tenor of their brief comments may 
 properly be interpreted to be adverse to that proposition. 
 Whether the advance of years may have affected an advance in 
 the liberality and justice of their ideas remains to be seen, as they 
 are all in high political station and may have a voice in the 
 settlement of the question now formally submitted to an honest 
 people through their representatives in the law-making branch of 
 the federal government. 
 
 Fully seven years having passed away since this great subject 
 was brought to the attention of members of congress, and others 
 eminent in public life, the writer was forced to the conclusion that 
 the only way left open for him to pursue was to prepare a bill 
 setting forth the general purpose sought to be accomplished, and 
 to procure its formal introduction into Congress, in case a senator 
 or representative could be found willing to have his name con- 
 nected with a just measure having in contemplation a small per- 
 centage of the compensation due from a great nation to a part of 
 the human race it had held in slavery by the power of its gov- 
 ernment, exercised in the enforcement of oppressive laws. 
 
 In conversation with the Hon. William J. Connell, representa- 
 tive in the Fifty-first congress from the First District of Nebraska, 
 that gentleman expressed his willingness to introduce the required 
 bill and to take care of all correspondence that might come in his 
 hands in consequence of such introduction. The writer esteems 
 himself fortunate in having secured the help of Congressman 
 Connell, which was accorded cheerfully. It is a pleasure to be 
 able to say that Mr. Connell belongs to that class of public men 
 who appreciate their relation to their constituents and who fulfill 
 every respectable service required at their hands with assiduity if 
 not real pleasure. In this instance the writer is happy in the 
 belief that Mr. Connell is in full sympathy with the spirit of the 
 measure he has laid before the House of Kepresentatives, and will 
 do all that lies in his power to secure for it a fair consideration. 
 
 The bill presented by Mr. Connell was drafted by the writer 
 (W. R. Vaughan, editor of the Omaha Daily Democrat and 
 president of the Democrat Publishing Company) , and the full 
 text of the measure is as follows; 
 
VAUGHAN S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 39 
 
 A BILL for an Act to provide pensions for freedmen released from 
 involuntar}- servitude, and to afford aid and assistance for certain persons 
 released, that they may be maintained in old age. 
 
 Prepared by W. R. Vaughan of Omaha, and introduced by Hon. W. J. 
 Connell, M. C. from the First Nebraska District, by request. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, 
 in Congress assembled: 
 
 Section 1. That all persons released from involuntary servitude, 
 commonl}^ called slaves, in pursuance of the proclamation of ex-president 
 Abraham Lincoln, dated respectively September 23, 1862, and Januar^^ 1, 
 1863, and in pursuance of amendments to the constitutions of the several 
 states wherein slavery or involuntar}'- servitude formerly existed, recog- 
 nized by the federal constitution and laws of the United States, or by any 
 law, proclamation, decree or device wherebj^ persons once held as slaves 
 or involuntary subjects, in consequence of race or color, or federal or 
 state recognition of involuntary^ servitude, except for the commission of 
 crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall be and 
 hereby are made j^ensioners upon the bounty of the L^nited States, and 
 also^uch persons as may be charged by laws of consanguinity with the 
 maintenance and support of freedmen who are unable by reason of age or 
 disease to maintain themselves. 
 
 Sec. 2. Any person who may have been held as a slave or involun- 
 tary servant under and by reason of sluj law of the United States, or in 
 consequence of any device or custom prevailing within such states or the 
 United States, except for the commission of crime whereof the party 
 shall have been dul}" convicted, and who shall have been released from 
 such servitude in manner before stated, and who shall at the date of the 
 passage of this act have reached the age of seventy years shall be entitled 
 to and receive the sum of f 500 from the treasury^ of the United States, 
 hereby authorized to be paid out of any moneys not otherwise appropri- 
 ated, and to the sum of |15 per month during the residue of their natural 
 lives. This provision shall apply to male and female alike. And all 
 persons so released from servitude who shall be less than seventy 3*ears 
 of age and of the age of sixty j^ears or over, shall be entitled to receive 
 the sum of $300, and also $12 per month until the}- shall reach the age of 
 seventy" y^ears, when they shall be entitled to and receive the greater sum 
 hereinbefore stated as a monthh^ payment. And all persons released 
 from servitude as before stated who shall be less than sixty y^ears old 
 and of the age of fifty years or over shall be entitled to and receive the 
 sum of $100 and also $8 per month, until sixty years old, when they shall 
 receive $12. And all persons released from servitude as before stated 
 who shall be less than fifty years of age, shall be entitled to and receive 
 $4 per month until fifty j-ears old, when they shall receive eight dollars. 
 All moneys herein authorized to be paid shall be dispensed from the 
 general funds of the treasury, not otherwise appropriated. 
 
 Sec. 3. Relations or others who may be charged Vy^th the support of 
 aged or infirm persons released from involuntary- servitude, in manner 
 aforesaid, shall be entitled to and receive the monthly- pension awarded to 
 such aged or infirm persons in whole or in part upon showing to the satis- 
 faction of the secretary- of the interior that such support is afforded in a 
 humane and becoming manner, the amount of such pay-ment being 
 under the control and direction of the secretary aforesaid. 
 
 Sec. 4. The secretary- of the interior shall have power to prepare all 
 needful rules and regulations for the carrying into elTect of the provisions 
 of this act according to the true intent and meaning thereof, and to 
 designate proper officers or agents through whom freedmen and other 
 persons may make application for payment and receive money-s author- 
 ized to be paid by the provisions of this act. 
 
 Sec. 5. All needful rules and regulations for the carry-ing into effect 
 
40 
 
 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 of the provisions of this act shall be approved by congress before the 
 takeng into effect thereof. 
 
 Sec. 6. The compensation of agents charged with the enforcement of 
 this law shall be recommended by the secretary of the interior and 
 approved by congress. 
 
 Sec. 7. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after the 
 first day of January, A. D. 1891. 
 
 The "Freedmen's Pension Bill," as it may be properly called, 
 
 was introduced in the house of representatives June 24, 1890. It 
 
 was read twice (which appears to be the custom) and referred to 
 
 the Committee on Invalid Pensions. The following telegram was 
 
 received as soon as the bill was introduced: 
 
 Washington, D. C, June 24, 1890. 
 
 Hon , W. B. Vaughan: 
 
 Your slave pension bill introduced and referred . Will send 
 you copies as soon as printed. W.J. CONNELL. 
 
 Congressman Connell's attention was immediately called to the 
 fact that the bill should have been referred to the Committee on 
 Pensions, and the following letter was promptly received: 
 
 House of Representatives U. S., ) 
 Washington, D. C, July 17, 1890. j" 
 
 Hon. W. R. Vaughan: 
 
 Dear Sir: I have before me your letter of the 8th instant ac- 
 knowledging receipt of the copies of your Freedman's Bill, which 
 I recently forwarded to you. You are correct in tlie statement 
 that the bill has erroneously been referred to the Committee on In- 
 valid Pensions. As you say, it should have been referred to the 
 Committee on Pensions. I will at once have a change of reference 
 made. As soon as this is done I will have a request made by the 
 committee, in accordance with 3^ our suggestion, that the Secretary 
 of the Interior furnish an estimate as to the probable cost to the 
 government in carrying out the provisions of the bill. I will for- 
 ward to you any references to the bill which I consider may be of 
 special interest to you. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
VAUGHAX'S TLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 41 
 
 Of course there is a disposition to make light of this proposi- 
 tion in view of the "vast expense," according to the criticism of 
 public prints. That expense will be less than 33 per cent, of the 
 cost to the government of the great civil war, and from that heavy 
 debt the country is emerging at the rate of $140,000,000 a year. 
 Already the millionaires, and men of control in wealthy banking 
 institutions, are howling at the prospect of the early pa^^ment of 
 the national debt and there being left no means behind whereupon 
 bonds may be predicated for the continuance of their pet institu- 
 tions. It is respectfulh^ suggested that justice to the negro might 
 prove a panacea for the woes the}' have in such serious contem- 
 plation. What a pity it would be to let the poor millionaires fail 
 of an opportunity to turn an honest penny. 
 
 THE CAUSE IS JUST. 
 
 Many of the metropolitan newspapers are owned by millionaires 
 and they have attempted to burlesque the bill, claiming that the 
 money requiring to pension the ex-slaves would bankrupt the gov- 
 ernment, etc. But hundreds of letters have been received by Mr. 
 Connell and the author of the bill commending it as a measure of 
 justice. As Congressman Connell expressed himself in the follow- 
 ing letter on the subject of the cause being just, we tjika the 
 liberty of reproducing his letter: 
 
 ^See fac-siniile of letter on following page.) 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, U. S. 
 
 WASHixGTOi^-, July 5th/ 1890. 
 
 Hon. W. R. Vaughan: 
 
 Deae Sir: The enclosed is a specimen of many letters I have 
 received regarding the bill to provide pensions for freedmen, etc., 
 which I recently introduced at your request. In making response 
 to such letters, and in interviews with representatives of the press 
 desiring information regarding the bill, I have always made men- 
 tion of the fact that you were the author of the bill, and that I 
 introduced it at your request. As previously stated, this I will 
 make appear in the Record in due time. You are entitled to full 
 credit of both suggesting and preparing the bill. Its provisions 
 have occasioned much comment and some criticism; but who cares 
 for the latter when the cause is just? 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 W. J. CoXi^ELL. 
 
72. 
 
 7^ ^^-^^^^ 
 
YAUOHAX'S PLEA FOK THE OLD SLATES. 
 
 *43 
 
 C<^^>^ ^"Jotf-*^^ ~ ^i^t><. C-^yLZ^s. 
 
 ^/ 
 
 The specimen letter to which I\Ir. Coiiiiell made reference in 
 the foregoing communication was from Benjamin 0. Jones. Esq.. 
 a gentleman of prominence in Southern Illinois, and was couched 
 in the following terms : 
 
 Metropolis. III.. June 27. 1890. 
 Hon, Tr. ConnelL Washington. D. C: 
 
 Dear Sir: Allow me to congratulate you upon being the first 
 man. in Congress, to take the initial step towards an act of justice 
 to the ex-slaves of our country. Man}' thousands of slaves were 
 thrown upon their own resources as a result of tiie war. and at a 
 period of life when they were unal^le to learn the great problem 
 of hpw to win bread. They have for years — those who survived — 
 eked out a wretched existence at the hands of cliarity, unable to 
 learn how to make a living. Many still survive in poverty', the 
 inmates of our poor houses and other charitable institutions, or 
 go among us as gaunt images of famine, a reproach to the govern- 
 ment that made them freemen. Their condition was made 
 wretched by the act of emancipation . They were taken away from 
 abundance and turned out of their homes to starve. They helped 
 
44 
 
 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 to develop the resources and wealth of this country, and they 
 ought to enjoy some of its blessings. They should not be allowed 
 to fill paupers' graves or to seek at the hands of charity the com- 
 monest necessities of life. I am a white man, was raised in the 
 slave state of Kentucky, and I desire to thank you for your noble 
 courage and humanity in presenting this bill, in this prominent 
 manner, to the consideration of the Congress of the United 
 States . 
 
 Who would not prefer the dangers of a soldier's life to the tor- 
 turing immolation of a life of slavery ? Let us pension the old 
 ex-slaves. I have advocated it on the stump, and I congratulate 
 you that your position enables 3^ou to speak to more people and 
 with greater effect. Please send me a copy of your bill. 
 
 Truly and sincerely, 
 
 BENeT. O. JONES. 
 Hundreds of letters from the white and colored citizens of the 
 South have also been received, and the following is a fair sample 
 of the southern sentiment as to "Vaughan's Freedmen's Pension 
 Bill," for which reason it is reproduced: 
 
 SOUTHERN SENTIMENT. 
 
 Sherill, Ark., July 12, 1890. 
 W. R. Vaughan^ Esq., Editor and President Omaha Democrat: 
 
 Dear Sir: By accident, one of your valuable papers has fallen 
 into my hands. Though, I guess, from the name, it is democratic 
 in politics, yet it has the true ring of right and justice. I herein 
 enclose subscription for daily and Sunday for one month, and in- 
 tend to take it longer. I am a true blue republican, a colored 
 man and an ex-slave. I am truly glad to see that there is one 
 democrat that is a true friend from his heart to the negro that 
 has been for years imposed upon. As for myself, I care not 
 whether I get a cent from the government or not, as I was liber- 
 ated when quite young, and am hale and hearty and able to take 
 care of "me and mine." But justice should be done to the older 
 ones, at least, who were turned loose at an old age, without educa- 
 tion, homes or money, and broken down in health, unable to make 
 a support, thrown upon the charity of a cold world — paupers. 
 You and Congressman Council , of your state, have enlisted in a 
 humane and commendable cause. Whether you succeed or not, 
 your names will be revered by the dusky sons of Africa as true 
 friends of our race. The news of such a measure pensioning ex- 
 slaves has spread among them like wildfire, and they are now 
 
VAUGHAX S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 45 
 
 watching with eager eyes, and listening with attentive ears, to see 
 who their friends are, whether democrats or republicans. Both 
 parties tell us that they are our friends. Well, we will wait and 
 see. We will watch their votes. Now is the time and opportu- 
 nity to prove friendship. The democratic party should vote for 
 the measure, not because the negro is its allj^, for he is not, but 
 because it is right and just. The republicans should support it 
 for the same reasons, except the negro has been with them ever 
 since Mr. Lincoln's proclamation. 
 
 The southern congressmen should support the bill for another 
 reason beside justice, but because nine- tenths of the money will 
 come south, and as most all of the merchants and land owners in 
 the south are whites , of course it will circulate amongst them . But 
 we fear that for this reason my party (the republican) will defeat 
 it. We hope not. In this matter of right and justice both par- 
 ties should put themselves on record unanimously in favor of the 
 bill. Yours, S. P. HAYIS. 
 
 The letters of Mr. Jones and 8. P. Havis given above in full 
 are inserted in these pages rather than any of the very many 
 others which have been written upon the subject of the Freedmen's 
 Pension Bill. The}" commend Congressman Council, who has 
 taken the initiative in the work of justice towards an impover- 
 ished race, in his character as a representative of the people, and 
 by Mr. Connell referred to the writer of these pages. The fact is 
 fully appreciated b}^ the writer that courage, determination, and 
 ver}" possibl}^ the expenditure of a good deal of mone}^ will be 
 necessar}" in order to accomplish the great task now self-assumed. 
 The aid of such a man as W. J. Connell, and of others who will 
 give to him their confidence and support, will assist in the accom- 
 plishment of a work of reformation in governmental abase which 
 now warps the American character, as an avowed exponent of full 
 and complete justice towards all men. The words of commenda- 
 tion spoken and written to the author of the Freedmen's Pension 
 Bill, would fill a fair sized volume; but the publication of all of 
 these would be but a repetition, in substance, of the candid words 
 and views expressed in the communications of Mr. Jones and Mr. 
 Havis . 
 
 If the writer could appeal to the better sentiment of the 
 persons who make up the Commons of Great Britain, and to the 
 men of liberal sentiment in that countr}-- , he would appeal to them 
 to give their encouragement to an enterprise looking to a decent 
 compensation to the sons and daughters of the race of human 
 
46 
 
 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 beings who were forced upon English colonists as slaves, years 
 and years before American freedom from British domination was 
 contemplated by even the most far-seeing and resolute of the 
 American people. But such an appeal would propably be in vain. 
 To the emancipated men and women of the recent slave states, 
 however, it may be well enough to say: "Bear in remembrance 
 the fact that you were not made slaves by the will of the people of 
 the states that held you in bondage from your birth to the day 
 of your liberation. You came to those people by inheritance. 
 The institution of slavery was planted, nurtured and grew into 
 power in American states under the author it}^ and domination of 
 the English nation when that power owned and ruled this land." 
 
 PROGRESS OF ANTI-SLAVERY SENTIMENT. 
 
 In another part of this volume it has been shown that the 
 original importation of slaves into North America was the work 
 of British merchants and traders, who forced the ins'daition of 
 slavery upon the colonies in violation of the protests of the 
 colonists, who were averse to the establishment of the institution 
 of slavery in their midst. Recurrence is had to this historical 
 fact with a view of showing that there has alwa3"s been a strong 
 and able sentiment in opposition to the institution of human 
 slavery ; and that its apologists have been influenced by consid- 
 erations of personal interest, coupled with an inability to make 
 free the slaves, and to settle suitable provision for their sustenance 
 upon the subjects of emancipation when made by masters to such 
 as constituted their personal estate under the laws of those states 
 where they severally resided. 
 
 From the best records obtainable it appears that British adven- 
 turers first engaged in the Importation of African slaves in the 
 year 15G2, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and that the 
 scheme was undertaken for mercenary purposes. After Sir John 
 Hawkins had made a profitable trip between the coast of Africa 
 and the West India Islands, his monarch sent for him and 
 upbraided him for engaging in an inhuman traffic ; one that was 
 * ' detestable ' ' and would certainly ' ' call down the vengeance of 
 heaven." Although promising his queen not again to engage in 
 a traffic in human flesh, he once more made a successful voyage to 
 Africa, and returned with a cargo of negroes who were impressed 
 into slavery. Hill's Naval History tells us of Sir John Hawkins' 
 second expedition , that ' ' here began the horrid practice of forcing 
 Africans into slavery, an injustice and barbarity which, so sure as 
 
VAI'GHAX'S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES 
 
 there is a vengeance in heaven for the worst of crimes, will some 
 time be the destruction of all vho allow or encourage it . " ' 
 
 For two luindrefl years the slave trade was continued as a 
 source of profit, and in the mean time it became firmly rooted 
 upon the territory of the English colonies, and also upon the 
 soil in possession of the governments of France and Spain. 
 During all this period there were brave men who fought the 
 iniquity with valor and determinatiun . But like prudent men 
 they did not -eek to turn the world upside down at a single 
 stroke. They directed their efforts, first towards the suppression 
 of the slave trade, next to the prohibition of slavery extension 
 upon free territory, and finally to the direction of the abolition of 
 the institution itself. 
 
 Among the early enemies of the slave trade, and incidentally 
 of human slavery . may be reckoned Richard Baxter, the author of 
 Baxter's Saints' Eest. and other works of a christian and 
 devotional character, who puljlished a periodical known as the 
 '•Negro and Indian Advocate."' In the columns of his paper he 
 took the ground tliat they who go out as pirates and take away 
 African subjects or the people of any other land, who have never 
 forfeited life or liberty, and make them slaves and sell them, are 
 the worst of robbers, and ought to be considered as the common 
 enemies of mankind. He went further and declared that tliey who 
 buy them and use them as mere beasts for their own convenience, 
 regardless of their spiritual welfare, are fitter to be called demons 
 than christians. 
 
 At a later day Dr. Primatt published a lecture entitled a 
 "Dissertation on the Duty of Mercy." in which tliat eminent 
 divine spoke of the institution of African slavery in the following 
 scathing terms: "It has pleased God to cover some men with 
 white skins and others with black: but as there is neither merit 
 nor demerit in complexion, the white man. notwithstanding the 
 barbarity of custom and prejudice, can have no right by virtue of 
 his color to enslave and tyrannize over the black man. For 
 whether a man be white or black, such he is by God's appoint- 
 ment, and abstractly considered, is neither a subject for pride nor 
 an object of contempt.'' 
 
 In 1735 Dr. Atkins, a surgeon in the British navy, published 
 an account of a voyage made by him to Guinea, on the west coast 
 of Africa, and thence to the West Indies and Brazil. He 
 describes vividly the methods pursued by slave dealers of sup- 
 
48 
 
 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 plying their vessels with their cargoes of human freight, by kid- 
 napping, by false accusations and pretended trials, and every 
 nefarious device known to avarice and cupidity. In his account 
 he details the cruelties practiced upon the native Africans by 
 white men, who were British slave traders; and he proceeds, while 
 exposing their cruelty, to answer their staple argument, by which 
 they maintained that the condition of the Africans was improved 
 by their transportation to other countries. 
 
 Edmund Burke , the famous British statesman , in his account of 
 the European settlements planted in America, placed upon record 
 his observation that the negroes in our colonies endure a slavery 
 more complete, and attended with far worse circumstances, than 
 what any people in their condition suffer in any other part of the 
 world, or have suffered in any other period of time." 
 
 In the year 1766 Bishop Warburton preached a sermon before 
 the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in which he dealt 
 with slavery and the slave trade with an unsparing hand. He 
 said : "From the free savages (the Indian tribes) I now come to 
 the savages in bonds. By these I mean the vast multitudes yearly 
 stolen from the opposite continent, and sacrificed by the colonists 
 to their great idol, the god of gain. But what says these wor- 
 shipers of Mammon? ' They are our own property which we offer 
 up!' Gracious God! To talk, as of herds of cattle, of rational 
 creatures, endowed with all our faculties, possessing all our 
 qualities but that of color, our brethren both by nature and grace, 
 shocks all the feelings of humanity, and the dictates of common 
 sense. But alas! what is there in the abuse of society which does 
 not shock them? Yet nothing is more certain in itself, and appa- 
 rent to all, than that the infamous traffic in slaves directly 
 infringes both divine and human law. Nature created man free, 
 and grace invites him to assert his freedom. In excuse for this 
 violation it has been pretended that though these miserable out- 
 casts of humanity have been torn from their homes and native 
 country by fraud and violence, yet they thereby become the 
 happier, and their condition more eligible. But who are you, 
 who pretend to judge of another man's happiness? Of that state 
 which each man, under the guidance of his Maker, forms for 
 himself, and not one man for another? To know what constitutes 
 mine or your happiness is the sole prerogative of Him who created 
 us and cast us in so various and different moulds. Did your 
 sla^'cs ever complain to you of their unhappiness amidst their 
 native woods and deserts? Or rather let me ask, did they ever 
 
vaughan's plea for the old slaa^es. 
 
 49 
 
 cease complaining of their condition nnder 3^ou, their lordly 
 masters, where the}" see indeed the accommodations of civil life 
 but see them pass to others, themselves inibenefitted by them? 
 Be so gracious, then, ye petty tj^rants over human freedom, to let 
 your slaves judge for themselves, what it is that makes their own 
 happiness, and see if they do not place it in their return to their 
 own country, rather than in the contemplation of j^our grandeur, 
 of which their misery makes so large a part ; a return so passion- 
 atel}^ longed for, that despairing of happiness here, that is, of 
 escaping the chains of their cruel task-masters, they console them- 
 selves with feigning it to be the gracious reward of heaven in 
 their future state." 
 
 Besides the captive Africans who were brought direct from 
 their native shores to become serfs in the New AVorld there were 
 divers ways in which the institution of slavery was promulgated 
 and fastened upon the pioneer settlers of nearl}" all the lands in 
 the western hemisphere. To follow in detail these methods would 
 be to write a volume equal in extent to the Holy Scriptures. 
 But through all the vicissitudes of the poor negroes, who were con- 
 stantly made the hewers of wood and the drawers of water for the 
 white race, as the settlements of North and South America and 
 adjacent islands increased, there were heard the voices of good 
 men protesting against the wrong of slaver}^ in the abstract and 
 the horrors of the slave trade in particular. Among the noble 
 men of England who interested themselves in their day for the 
 betterment of the condition of the slaves, who became conspicuous 
 by their determined opposition to the slave trade, may be 
 mentioned Granville Sharp, who was instrumental, in 1772, in 
 carrying the case of a slave, taken by his m.aster from Jamaica to 
 England, before the court of the Kings Bench, and there procured 
 the decision of the judges " that as soon as ever an 3^ slave set his 
 foot upon English territory- lie became free." Immediately after 
 the trial Mr. Sharp wrote to Lord North, then principal minister 
 of state, warning him, in the most earnest manner, to abolish 
 immediately both the trade and the slavery of the human species 
 in all the British dominions, as utterly irreconcilable with the 
 principles of the British constitution and the established religion 
 of the land. 
 
 Another powerful advocate of the national rights of man, 
 appertaining to the black as well as the white race, appeared in 
 the person of John AYesley, the celebrated divine. In 1774 this 
 pious man took up the cause of the enslaved African race. He 
 
50 
 
 Vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 had been to America and had seen and pitied the hard condition 
 of the slaves within the colonies of the mother country. He 
 published a work entitled " Thonghts on Slavery," which exerted 
 a salutary influence upon the public mind in riviting the convic- 
 tion that slavery was wrong, the slave trade abominable and that 
 both ought to be exterminated. 
 
 The Quakers of America early manifested a deep and com- 
 passionate feeling towards slaves within the American colonies, 
 although many of them became possessed of slave property upon 
 their settlement in this country. But it must be said of them that 
 they treated their slaves with great kindness. Notwithstanding 
 their mildness toward them, and the consequent content of the 
 slaves themselves, some of the society began to entertain doubts 
 in regard to the. right of holding negroes in bondage at all. 
 Almost a century before the visit of John Wesley to America 
 some of the German Quakers, who had followed William Penn to 
 America, urged in the yearly meeting of Pennsylvania, the incon- 
 sistency of buying, selling and holding man 'in slaver}^, with the 
 principles of the Christian religion. At a later date the yearly 
 meeting for that province took up the subject as a public concern, 
 with the result that the society declared against the future impor- 
 tations of African slaves, and the members were charged to be 
 particularly attentive to the spiritual and temporal welfare of 
 those held in possession. For a series of years this solicitude was 
 renewed in the annual meetings, in fact being continued until the 
 institution of slavery had practically disappeared within the 
 province of Penns3dvania. 
 
 In the 3^ear 1772 a favorable disposition towards the condi- 
 tion of the slaves became manifest in several of the colonies. The 
 House of Burgesses of Virginia of that year presented a petition to 
 the King of Great Britain beseeching his majesty to remove all 
 those restraints on his governors of that colony which forbade 
 their assent to such laws as might check that inhuman and 
 impolitic commerce — the slave trade. It is a remarkable fact that 
 the refusal of the British government to permit the colonists to 
 exclude slaves from among them b}^ law, was afterwards enumer- 
 ated by Thomas Jefferson among the public reasons for separating 
 from the mother country after the war of the revolution had 
 broken out . 
 
 In Mr. Jefferson's " Correspondence," there appears afac-simile 
 of a portion of the original draft of the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence, which was stricken out of that document when it was 
 
VArOHAX S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 51 
 
 adopted in committee. The gentlemen selected in congress to pre- 
 pare a formal document setting forth reasons wh}' the colonies 
 should become free and independent states, were John Adams, 
 Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert 
 R. Livingston. To Mr. Jefferson was assigned the important dut,y 
 of preparing the form of the declaration. In his draft, submitted 
 to the whole committee, appears the following: 
 
 He (King George III. of England) has waged civil war against human 
 nature itself, violating the most sacred rights of life and liberty intlie per- 
 sons of a distant people, who never oii'ended him: captivating and carr^^- 
 ing them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death 
 in their transportation thither. This piratical Avarfare, the opprobrium 
 of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian King of Great Britain; 
 determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold, 
 he prostituted his negative for suppressing ever}' legislative attempt to 
 prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce; and, that this assemblage 
 of horrors might want no fact of distinguished dye, he is now exciting 
 those very people to rise in arms among us. and to purchase that libert}^ 
 of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people upon whom he 
 has obtruded them, thus paying off former crimes, committed against tlie 
 liberties of one people with crimes which he urges them to commit against 
 the lives of another. 
 
 It does not appear in Mr. Jefferson's works why the foregoing 
 indictment againt the -English crown was stricken from the im- 
 mortal declaration, or which member of the committee moved its 
 expurgation. His wish not to reflect upon any of his co-patriots 
 in an hour of emergency no doubt prevented any personal refer- 
 ence to men on that solemn occasion. But all Americans know, 
 and the world knows, that Thomas Jefferson was a sincere devotee 
 of personal as well as collective liberty, and when he penned that 
 other great truth, which stands in the Declaration of Independence 
 as accepted, approved and signed in the Colonial Congress, that 
 " all men are born equal and endowed by their Creator with cer- 
 tain inalienable rights, among which are life, libert}- and the pur- 
 suit of happiness," he meant the negro slave to be included side 
 b}" side witli the white master, whose freedom was acknowledged 
 b}' all the world. 
 
 The facts set forth in this narrative arnph^ demonstrate that 
 there was a strong sentiment both in Europe and America looking 
 to the curtailment of the slave power, which readih^ found expres- 
 sion in the Declaration of Independence, though not in the posi- 
 tive form that Mr. Jefferson desired. It is, however, enough to 
 know that when the cradle of American freedom was rocked our 
 patriot forefathers gaA^e utterance to sentiments respecting uni- 
 versal liberty that included all races of men regardless of color. 
 
52 
 
 Vau'^han's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 From that day to the present there have been earnest men who 
 have contended sincerely for the abridgment of slavery in every 
 land . 
 
 Soon after the close of the revolutionary war the efforts of 
 Wilberforce and the noble men who agreed with him in opinion 
 secured the settled opposition of Great Britain to the continuance 
 of the African slave trade. The adoption of the Constitution of 
 the United States was the direct means of prohibiting the lawful 
 introduction of impressed slaves into this countr3^, and of putting 
 an estoppel upon the trade altogether after 1808. 
 
 In the mean time President Jefferson concluded negotiations 
 with Napoleon Bonaparte whereby the territory of Louisiana was 
 purchased, which included nearly all the territory belonging to the 
 United States, after the date of the purchase, lying west of the Mis- 
 sissippi river that gave earl}^ promise of seeking statehood within 
 the Union. The cession of the Northwest Territor}^ to the United 
 Spates had been accompanied by an agreement in the congress of 
 the confederation prior to the adoption of the constitution that 
 S-ich territor}^ might be erected into seventeen states, when the pop- 
 ulation would admit of the formation of new states. Mr. Jefferson 
 was chairman of the committee cliarged wi ll framing an ordinance 
 for the government of this vast area ; and during the session of 
 1784 he reported such an ordinance which contained the following 
 rale: 
 
 That after the year 1800 of the Christian era, there shall be neither 
 Slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of said states, otherwise than in 
 punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been convicted to be 
 personally guilt}^ 
 
 The rule was not then adopted, but in the last congress of the 
 confederation Nathan Dane, of Massachusetts, reported an 
 ordinance, July 11, 1787, for the government of the territory of 
 the United States northwest of the Ohio river, in which the 
 Jeifersonian interdiction of slavery was repeated, and it then re- 
 ceived concurrence. All the great northwest was thereafter dedi- 
 cated to freedom and became free soil. 
 
 It naturally follows that when the Louisiana purchase was made 
 there was a strong feeling manifested to extend the Jeffersonian 
 proviso to that territory. Unfortunately slavery existed therein 
 before the purchase, and it could not be eradicated. But the agi- 
 tation continued; and when the inhabitants of Missouri formed a 
 state government, the same being a part of the Louisiana purchase, 
 and applied for admission into the Union, during the month of 
 March, 1818, the fact that the constitution of the new state recog- 
 
VAUGHAN S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 53 
 
 nized slavery caused the beginning of a fierce agitation which con- 
 tinued with more or less violence for nearly half a century. Mis- 
 souri was not successful in her application at that time. In the 
 next Congress, ^November 16, 1820, Missouri again knocked for 
 admission. The debate that ensued was long, fierce and acrimo- 
 nious; but it was finally terminated February 27, 1821, by the ad- 
 mission of Missouri in pursuance of a compromise, which provided 
 that in the erection of future new states those l^'ing north of the 
 parallel of 36° 30' should be free states, and those lying south of 
 that parallel might be free or sl^ve as the people should elect. 
 
 The acceptance of the Missouri Compromise settled the status 
 of slaver}^ extension for thirt}^ 3'ears. In 1850, when California 
 applied for admission, the whole question of slaver}^ extension was 
 opened up, and with reference to the territory acquired from 
 Mexico at the conclusion of the war with that government. Four 
 years later the formation of territorial governments for Kansas and 
 Nebraska revived the anti-slavery agitation with great bitterness. 
 The repeal of the Missouri Compromise fired the northern heart to 
 an extent that was not quieted again . The agitation was continued 
 unceasingly^ and finally^ culminated in the election of Abraham 
 Lincoln on a platform opposed to the acceptance of additional 
 slave states in the Union. The civil war followed, and afterwards 
 emancipation followed as a natural result. 
 
 The purpose of this imperfect review has been to show that 
 there has ahvays been an able and educated element in this coun- 
 try opposed to the bondage and oppression of the negro race, and 
 that throughout the vicissitudes in the career of the black man as 
 a slave, he has had powerful and eloquent champions, pleading 
 with earnestness and fervor for his release from the galling chains 
 of in voluntary^ servitude. At last the day of freedom dawned in 
 an unforseen and inexplicable manner. It came amidst the crash 
 of systems that had been maintained in this, land for three hundred 
 years. It came in the din, the smoke and the carnage of battle. 
 It came in a torrent of liuman blood, and through the havoc of 
 might}^ armies. It came as the will of Almighty God who selected 
 this devastating agency to let the oppressed go free. 
 
 It is scarcely^ necessary^ to say that thousands of the men of the 
 South would have willingly emancipated their slaves long years be- 
 fore the tocsin of war was sounded , but they were deterred there- 
 from in consequence of their pecuniary inability to set them up in 
 life and make suitable provision for their maintenance in the first 
 months or .years of their struggle for existence. When emancipa- 
 
54 
 
 vaughan's flea for the old slaves. 
 
 lion was confirmed in the dread circumstance of war and subjuga- 
 tion, there was nothing to do but to accept the inevitable, and to 
 recognize the fact that human slavery was a doomed institution 
 for all the years of coming time. The men and women who were 
 baptized in blood unto freedom went forth owing allegiance to 
 none. 
 
 While blessing the day that has wiped out the curse of slavery 
 from the escutcheon of our fair land, it is sad to contemplate that 
 the wards of the nation are in a worse state to-day, so far as the 
 personal comfort of thousands and»tens of thousands of them are 
 concerned, than they were in the days of their servitude. This is 
 especially true of the old and infirm. In the hope that the gov- 
 ernment, which our fathers created and their sons here preserved, 
 will dare to be just in defiance of obloquy, prejudice and ridicule, 
 this humble appeal is made to those in place and power, for justice 
 to the race that lias been liberated from bondage, only that they 
 may live in want and misery and die at last in nakedness and dis- 
 tress. Let the government be just. Generosity is not asked nor 
 sought. Do Avhat is right, and let the world know that the 
 stars and stripes constitute the emblem of a nation that has the 
 courage to correct the errors of ages. Let the spirit of the 
 Vauglian ex-slave pension bill become the law of the land . 
 
 As a fitting finale to this petition for the rights of the slaves 
 of olden days the following editorial from the columns of the 
 Omaha Daily Democrat^ of Sunday , August 13, 1890, is copied. 
 W. R. Yawghan is president of the Democrat Publishing Company. 
 
 BE JUST AND FEAR NOT. 
 
 There are plainly those in political as well as in journalistic life who 
 fear to discuss with fairness the provisions of Vaughanf. Freedmen's 
 Pension bill; and all such seek to underrate its importance by the idle 
 declaration that it is a temporary expedient in government policy that 
 will die under the breath of ridicule. A half century ago the same flimsy 
 excuse for an argument was used by the public press and by political 
 orators when James G. Birney entered the political arena as the candidate 
 of the liberty party for the presidency. It was asserted that the meager 
 support which Mr. Birney received in 1840 — he had but little more than 
 7,000 votes in all the states — would deter the Garrison school of aboli- 
 tionists from maldng another exhibition of their weakness, and that they 
 would be glad to retire from public view never to expose themselves to 
 familiar gaze again. But alas for human expectation when based upon 
 nothing at all! The movement inaugurated by Birney, Garrison and their 
 compatriots had substantial merit, and it gained accessions as the cause 
 was discussed. In 1844 James G. Birney was again a presidential candidate 
 and in that year he was given 62,000 votes, being considerably more than 
 
VAUGHAN S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLATES. 
 
 55 
 
 the plurality wliich James K. Polk received over Henry Clay. The liberty 
 part}' began to be a noticeable feature in the affairs of the nation. 
 
 In 1848 Van Buren and Adams, under the name and guise of the free- 
 soil party, received 291,000 votes in the several states. This was merely 
 the old abolition party under a new name. The antipathj^ against the 
 institution of slavery continued to spread, and finally culminated in the 
 success of tlie republican party and in the emancipation of the slaves 
 under the influences of a condition of Avar. Less than a quarter of a cen- 
 tury after Birney and Garrison flung the banner of universal freedom to 
 the breeze the institution of slavery had ceased to exist in the length 
 and breadth of our fair land. 
 
 History, as Mr. Lincoln once said, is merely repeating itself. The 
 demand for pensions in behalf of the former subjects of slavery is so fair 
 and just that no opposition to tlie fundamental idea can weaken its merit; 
 and attempts at ridicule will only give it a firmer hold upon the sense of 
 justice entertained by a fair-minded people. In the face of weak preten- 
 sion toward expression of contempt it will grow by day and by night until 
 it has taken such deep root in the public mind that the law-making power 
 of the United States will be glad to give it heed and obedience. In the 
 poetic language of Charles Mackey it will become 
 
 "The Voice of the Tbies." 
 
 " Day unto day uttereth speech — 
 Be wise, oh ye nations, and hear 
 What yesterday telleth to-daj- — 
 
 What to-daj' to-morrow will preach. 
 A change cometh over the sphere, 
 And the old goeth down to-day. 
 A new light hath dawned on the darkness of yore, 
 And men shall be slaves and oppressors no more. 
 
 " Hark to the throbbing of thought 
 In the breast of the wakening world; 
 Over land, over sea it hath come. 
 
 The serf that was yesterday bought, 
 To-day his defiance hath hurled — 
 Xo more is his slavery dumb — 
 He's broken away from the fetters that bind. 
 And he lifts a bold arm for the rights of mankind. 
 
 "The voice of opinion hath grown — 
 'Twas 3'esterday changeful and weak — 
 Like the voice of a boy m his prime. 
 To-day it hath taken the tone 
 Of an orator, worthy to speak — ^ 
 Who knows the demand of his time! 
 To-morrow 'twill sound in the nation's dull ear 
 Like the trump of a seraph to startle our sphere. 
 
 " Be wise, oh ye rulers of earth! 
 And shut not your ears to his voice, 
 Nor allow it to warn you in vain. 
 
 True Freedom, of yesterday's birth, 
 Will march on its way and rejoice, 
 And never be conquered again. 
 This day hath a tongue — aye. the hours have speech — 
 Wise, wise will ye be if ye learn what they teach." 
 
56 
 
 VAUGHAN S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 A question has arisen as to the history and character of the 
 man who is willing to devote his time and means to the promulga- 
 tion of a law that will do justice to the negro, without fee or re- 
 ward to himself. That man is not ashamed of his name or of 
 his public record, as far as he has one. 
 
 The following biographical sketch of 
 
 "WALTER RALEIGH VAUGHAN 
 
 was puhlished in the Omaha Daily Democrat of Sunday, June 
 20, 1890. 
 
 Since the appearance of the article given to the public last Sunday 
 morning, proposing a pension to freedmen restored to liberty from a 
 former condition"of involuntary servitude, a large number of letters have 
 been received from all quarters of the union, asking concerning the 
 antecedents of ex-Maj^or Vaughan and requesting a statement of the 
 manner of man he is. In answer to these interrogatories a brief 
 biographical sketch is given and a portrait of the man. 
 
 Walter Raleigh Vaughan was born in Petersburgh, Va., May 12, 1848. 
 His parents moved to Montgomery, Ala., when the subject of this sketch 
 was about one year old. His mother died in his second year, and at her 
 request the babe was sent to reside with an uncle in North Carolina, the 
 Rev. R. C. Maynard, who was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal per- 
 suasion. At the age of thirteen years young Vaughan returned to his 
 father's home in Alabama. 
 
 From his early boyhood Mr. Vaughan became interested in labor and 
 economic questions growing out of the condition of the laboring classes, 
 upon whom his young eyes were naturally turned, white and black alike. 
 Perhaps his first effort in the direct interest of the negro slave was made 
 when, as a half-grown lad, he appealed to his father to give the negroes 
 in bondage the half or the whole of Saturday of each week, to be used as 
 his own time for private work or personal recreation. In all the later 
 avocations of life Mr. Vaughan has contributed time and money whenever 
 any important movement has been on the tapis in promoting the move- 
 ments and wishes of the working classes. As an official and as a news- 
 paper publisher, as well as in the private walks of life, he has advocated 
 and aided the cause of labor and the aims of the men who have earned 
 their own subsistence. 
 
 At the close of the war of the rebellion young Vaughan entered the 
 Crittenden commercial college of Philadelphia, where he received a 
 business education. He then took up his residence at St. Joseph, Mo., 
 from whence he came to Omaha early in 1868 and booked himself as a 
 guest of the old Herndon house at the foot of Farnam street, now the 
 headquarters of the Union Pacific railway company. After a brief 
 sojourn he located at Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he opened a business 
 college. In that city, May 12, 1869, being the twenty-first anniversary 
 of his birth, he was united in marriage with Miss Delia De Vol, daughter 
 of one of the oldest residents. 
 
 In March, 1881, Mr. Vaughan was elected mayor of Council BluflFs, 
 running as the regular democratic candidate, by a majority of thirty-six 
 
vaughan's plea for the old slates. 57 
 
 votes. In the meantime he had been actively engaged in business, a por- 
 tion of it devoted to journalism, for wliich profession he has always had a 
 pencliant. In 18^4 he was again elected mayor over a strong competitor 
 by a majority of 538 votes. AVhile serving as mayor, Gov. Larrabee, of 
 Iowa duly appointed and commissioned him as one of the state curators, 
 wliicli position he resigned to remove to Omaha. 
 
 During Mayor Vaughan's first t3rm in tlie mayoralty an unpre- 
 cedented flood occurred in the Missouri river and all the lowlands were 
 flooded and many families ruined by the devastation. Mayor Vaughan 
 came to their rescue, had them gathered in boats from their flooded quar- 
 ters and had tiiem provided with food and other necessaries. As his term 
 was about expiring, tlie well-remembered strikes were taking place in 
 Omaha, wherein an old man named Armstrong was bayonetted by a sol- 
 dier without cause or provocation. Mayor Vaughan at orice sent a letter 
 of condolence to the widow, together with a warmnty deed to a residence 
 lot in Council Bluffs, where tlie lady could make her home after her cruel 
 bereavement. 
 
 During the second term of his mayoralty, in company with Mr. 
 Thomas Officer, steps were taken to establish the Thompson-Houston 
 electric liirht system in Council BIujTs. the twain being sole owners. 
 Liter on, with Mr. J. C. Regan for a partner, Mr. Vaughan secured a char- 
 ter and established tlie electric light system of Omaha. His w^hole life 
 has been checkered with business enterprises, having their ups and downs, 
 but through all Mayor Vaughan has been steadfast in his adherence to the 
 rights of the working classes. 
 
 After retiring from the mayoralty of Council Bluffs. Mr. Vaughan 
 resumed his residence in Omaha, in which city he has had the general con- 
 trol and management of the Omaha Daily Democrat. In his caj^acity as a 
 journalist he has now revived a project conceived by him years ago to 
 have congress grant proper pensions to ex-slaves, whose early lives were 
 made the subject of barter by citizens and taxation by the government. 
 On this subject he carried on an extensive correspondence with public 
 men seven years ago. Among them with President Harrison, who was 
 then a senator from Indiana. ZSTone of the parties addressed appeared to 
 view the project with favor. But. steadfast in his faith and in liis belief 
 in what he has conceived to be right, Mr. Vaughan proposes to go on in 
 the line marked out until justice shall be done to a downtrodden people. 
 It is only a question of time when his efforts shall succeed. An era differ- 
 ent from being made the hewers of wood and the drawers of water for de- 
 signing politicians is about to dawn upon the oppressed negro race. It 
 will be an era of substantial prosperity. 
 
 As to the jDersonality of AV. E. Vaugliaii. it may be added that he was 
 not a soldier during the late war. being then too j'oung to bear arms. His 
 father and three brothers were, however, gallant soldiers in the southern 
 army. After the war of the rebellion had closed. Ms elder brother, Ver- 
 non H. Vaughan. was made secretary of Utah territory, at the request of 
 Robert M. Douglas (son of the great Stephen A. Douglas\, then private 
 secretary of President Grant, and later United States marshal in North 
 Carolina. The appointment was made by President Grant. "When Gov. 
 Shafer, of Utah, died, the president telegraphed the appointment of V. H. 
 Vaughan to fill the vacancy without waiting to be officially informed that 
 
58 
 
 VAUGHAN S TLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 an appointment was required. G o vernor Vaughan died in later years m Cali- 
 fornia. Mr. W. E. Vaug-han is now in his 426. year, is the father of five 
 sons and three daughters, all healthy, handsome children, and they are 
 heart and soul with their father in his work for justice. 
 
 It is proper to say that since arriving at man's estate W. R. Vaughan 
 has devoted much time and money in the upbuilding of benevolent and 
 fraternal institutions. He was Noble Grand Arch of the United Ancient 
 Order of Druids for the State of Iowa, and Grand Prelate of the Knights 
 of Pythias organization for the same state, and he gave years of his best 
 work to increase tliQ powers and benefits of Odd Fellowship in the west, 
 having been a patriarch since tho age of 21 years. 
 
 Mr. Vaughan has a surviving brother, Alonzo Vaughan, now residing 
 near Selma, Alabama. He has large landed interests in that vicinity and 
 also conducts a mercantile business. 
 
 Let the writer make a closing appeal to the Christian people 
 and the Benevolent orders of the United States by asking you 
 to read 
 
 WHY THK IREEDMEN's PENSION BILL SHOULD BECOME A LAW. 
 
 1 . It will be a measure of recognition of the inhumanity 
 practiced by the government in the holding, for a century, of 
 men and women as slaves in defiance of human right. 
 
 2. It will be a slight recompense to emancipated freemen for 
 the error of the government in permitting slavery to exist on the 
 soil of a people whose fundamental idea is the liberty of the 
 citizen . 
 
 3. It will afford to foreign nations a comple-e refutation of 
 the sentiment, often advanced, that American Freedom has been 
 merely a disguised form of tyranny whereof human slavery was 
 an exemplification. 
 
 4. It will manifest to the civilized world the important truth 
 that the Sons of the Fathers of the Republic associate liberty and 
 justice together as inseparable in the administration of a govern- 
 ment of the people. 
 
 5. It will afford a guaranty to other nations, struggling for 
 popular independence, that the real strength of a free people lies 
 in their ability to do right at all times and under all circumstances. 
 
 6. It will add to the material wealth of a great nation by 
 giving to persons having a claim de jure against tlie government 
 to put themselves in a position of complete equality before the 
 law with other citizens whose personal rights have not been 
 circumscribed . 
 
 7. It will enable an impoverished race, reduced to penury 
 through no fault of their own, to place themselves in a position of 
 
VAUGHAN S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 59 
 
 reasonable independence in their struggle for existence and 
 recognition in general business affairs. 
 
 8 . It will add to the national wealth of a productive section 
 of the Union by enabling an important factor of its population 
 to pursue business without constant appeals to public charitj^. 
 
 9. It will distribute a large addition to Southern capital 
 among a class of inhabitants who have been debarred hitherto 
 from contributing to the general welfare of their section. 
 
 10. It will enable the emancipated race to contribute to the 
 prosperity of their several states and to pursue avocations denied 
 to persons wholly dependent upon their daily toil for support. 
 
 11. It will have a tendency to break down a residuary sense 
 of race oppression which may have been fostered by means of a 
 condition of dependence but a shade removed from the former 
 condition of slavery. 
 
 12. It will remove the last barrier existing between the 
 races which has made political solidity an objectionable feature in 
 the political affairs of an}^ section of the Great American Republic, 
 and in coming years the thought of a solid North or a solid South 
 will not have a shade of sectional support. 
 
 13. It will be the duty of public men, it is hoped, occupying 
 ever}^ station of life, whether in the Senate or the House, whether 
 the president or governors of states, whether judges of courts or 
 attorne3^s at the bar, whether bankers or managers of great corpo- 
 rations of ever}' class, to ask themselves whether this claim of 
 one-tenth of the population of the United States ought to be dis- 
 regarded, and whether any country can continually prosper that 
 suffers injustice to such a large part of its people. 
 
 As 3'ou should be judged by the future generations of 3^our 
 countrymen, and finally by the All Wise Arbiter of human ac- 
 counts, you are adjured not to turn a deaf ear to the petition now 
 made in behalf of a misused and selfishly derided race, which has 
 been emancipated from bondage only to be wedded to lives of 
 ignorance and a condition of penury bordering upon starvation. 
 In the name and hope of that justice which ought to animate the 
 hearts of all true men, let the appeal sink deep into your minds, 
 to the end that you. shall heed the call made upon 3'ou to encour- 
 age an earnest support of the Freedmen's Pension Bill. "As ye 
 would that men should do to 3^ou , do ye even so to them . ' ' 
 
MEX OF MEEIT. 
 
 In the foregoing pages it lias been intended to show, in as briel 
 a compass as may be considered consistent with a proper delinea- 
 tion of tlie general character of negroes as citizens, something oi 
 their fealty to their masters in the da^^s of slavery, their devotion 
 to the canse of liberty when they found the way opened for them 
 to become freemen, their success in life when thrown upon their 
 own resourses, their heroic bravery in the Union cause when mus- 
 tered into the Federal service in the capacity of soldiers, and their 
 honorable reputation as statesmen in cases where colored men have 
 been called into the political field. To this it might have been 
 added that ver}^ many of them have risen to distinction in the 
 Christian church and in the field of letters. But this branch ot 
 the subject may be fittingly discussed in a series of brief biograph- 
 ical sketches of men who have achieved disf inction in their capacity 
 as freemen after having been liberated from the bonds of slaver}^. 
 
 Before entering upon the narration of individual cases it may 
 be proper to say that almost every communitj^ of tlie South has 
 v\ithin it some x^erson who ought to rank as a hero, but who 
 is unknown to fame because there has been a desire to enjoy the 
 blessings of domestic life rather than to engage in a calling that 
 would bring an individual into x^ublic notice. Very many of the 
 emancipated slaves have discovered decided financial abilit}-, and 
 they have accumulated large wealth. 3Ir. ]Montgomery, who was 
 a trusted slave of Jefferson Davis, under the old regime, and who 
 acted as his master^s agent in very many important commercial 
 transactions, accumulated an extensive property after he became a 
 freeman, and was widely known as an enterprising and successful 
 planter. He is but one of many whose talent ran in the line of 
 trade and traffic. The instances of slaves made freemen, with no 
 resources but the talents which God gave to them, but who have 
 acquired a competency, would fill a large volume. 
 
 Recently the writer was much interested in perusing a news- 
 paper sketch of a negro lad in Mississippi, who attracted the atten- 
 tion of his mistress by marks of natural shrewdness, ^d the lady 
 conceived the idea of his being made useful to her in other lines 
 than in a life of drudgery , provided he possessed a fair degree of 
 
62 
 
 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 cultivation. She thereupon devoted a short time every morning 
 in teaching the boy to read. He was apt in learning, and in a 
 comparatively short time he had acquired the rudiments of a fair 
 English education, with no other instruction than such as his mis- 
 tress was able to impart. While conditions were as stated the 
 civil war broke out. The adult white members of the family in 
 which the young negro was held as a slave, three in number, all 
 entered the Confederate army, and in the vicissitudes of the war 
 they all fell. Towards the close of hostilities the old plantation 
 suffered from the incursions of contending armies, and became the 
 prey of foraging parties on both sides. Tribute was levied first by 
 the one and then by the other. In a season of ruthless devastation 
 the improvements upon the plantation were destro3^ed by fire. 
 Peace came, but the old mistress was impoverished — nothing re- 
 maining to her except her barren acres. These were mortgaged 
 in a hopeless struggle to improve the place and begin life anew; 
 but the effort was fruitless, and the mortgage, in due time, ate up 
 the land. The plantation passed under the hammer. In some 
 manner the slave boy of former years learned that his old home 
 was to be sold, and that his kind mistress was about to meet the 
 cold charity of the world as a beggar. Like thousands of others 
 of his luice he had enlisted in the Union service, and after discharge 
 he had been engaged in a struggle for fortune, and had been moder- 
 ately successful. He turned his face toward the old plantation and 
 arrived at the county seat in time to attend the sale. As if 
 divinely ordered he became the successful bidder, and the place 
 whereon his eyes first beheld the light of day became his property 
 in fee simple. His next step was to hunt up his old mistress and 
 to minister to her comfort. She had relatives living in Virginia 
 and tlie desire of her heart seemed to be that she might be able to 
 reach them and to die amidst the scenes of her childhood. Her for- 
 mer servant provided the means, and the lady returned to her na- 
 tive state. The bright boy she had taught to read became a planter 
 on the estate w'liere he had once toiled as a slave. He rebuilt the 
 houses, raised his crops and prospered in the new Mfe. Every year 
 he sent a handsome donation to his former mistress, which he in- 
 creased in amount as his circumstances improved. The 3"0ung man 
 became very wealthy, buying other plantations, and giving em- 
 ployment to many of his former fellow-slaves. He still lives and 
 is rated to be worth a half million of money. His old mistress is 
 also living, made comfortable in lier old age by the munificence of 
 the man who once ranked as one of her chattels. Every month this 
 
YAUGHAX'S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 63 
 
 kind-hearted freedmaii sends his old mistress a check for one 
 hundred and fifty dollars, and he will continue to do so until 
 she is called to the better land. 
 
 This incident has been related at length for the reason that it 
 affords a good illustration of that genuine love which is an inherent 
 part of the negro character. Unquestionably there are to be found 
 throughout the South thousands of such instances of unselfish de- 
 votion on the part of the ex-slaves for the surviving members of 
 the families of their old-time masters. The truth of such an as- 
 sumption is rendered highly probable by one circumstance that ad- 
 mits of no dispute. The great mass of the ex-slaves have remained 
 within near api^roach to the scenes of their former servitude . They 
 do so from a dislike to break up and destroy the associations of 
 early years. Of course there has been a great shifting of scenes on 
 the part of mam^; and in some instances mammoth emigration 
 associations have been organized of those who have sought new 
 homes in distant states and territories. But the number who 
 sought new locations probabh" amounts to no more than ten 
 per cent, of the emancipated people. 
 
 The humble walks of life furnish as many evidences of great 
 hearts among the southern f reedmen as may be shown by those who 
 have risen to eminence in church and state. But being unknown 
 it is not an easy matter to do them that degree of justice which 
 their gratitude and devotion are entitled to receive. In this re- 
 spect the negro stands side hy side with the white man. Of the 
 Anglo-Saxon races, and, indeed, of all races of men, it is the emi- 
 nent few who are named in history, while the humble many run 
 their course and go to the grave unknown, unhonored and unsung. 
 
 But for the purpose of manifesting the progress which the 
 negro has made under very tr^'ing circumstances, a brief review 
 of the lives of some of the noted men of the race, will be in 
 order. 
 
 From the beginning it has been the purpose of this little volume 
 to confine its narration to those persons of color, in the main, who 
 have been the subjects of slaver}^ within the United States, with a 
 view of exhibiting their heroism in rising above the rule of oppres- 
 sion, that was their birthright, and of the^'ears of their early lives. 
 There have been many free men of color who were never held as 
 slaves who have been an honor to their race, but these scarcely 
 eome within the line of this discussion. 
 
64 
 
 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 CRISPUS ATTUCKS. 
 
 In a former part of this volume it has been shown that at the 
 time of the foundation of the federal constitution all of the states 
 held slaves except one. Prior to that date, in colonial days and 
 before the old French war, slaves were held in all communities 
 settled by immigration from Europe. About the year 1723 there 
 was born of a slave mother in the colony of Massachusetts the 
 subject of this sketch, Crispus Attucks. Like all men possessing 
 natural aspirations for liberty, Crispus Attucks chafed under the 
 rule of slavery and longed to be free. When he was 27 years old 
 he managed to escape from his master at Farmington, the date of 
 his escape being September 30, 1750. He has been described as a 
 finely developed man, of a bright yellow complexion, six feet two 
 inches in height, broad shouldered and in every respect an 
 athlete. He had learned to read, for at that time the education 
 of a slave was not entirely forbidden . His master advertised for his 
 recovery, offering a reward of ten pounds sterling for his capture. 
 As it was pi:'esumed he would try to go abroad in some sailing 
 vessel all masters of such vessels and others were cautioned 
 "against concealing or carrying off said servant on penalt}^ of the 
 law." But the caution was useless, for Crispus Attucks made 
 good his escape and was not captured. 
 
 His biographers do not tell us whether he went to sea or 
 fled to the forests, or how he managed to survive, but it is 
 certain that the soul-born love of freedom which he cherished was 
 not quenched. He was ready to fight for liberty, and if need be, 
 to die for the cause, not for himself alone, but for all the subjects 
 of oppression. And in that manner he met his death. 
 
 The Boston massacre took place March 5, 1770, The inhabit- 
 ants of that city had been the victims of British oppression to a 
 degree that frenzied them with madness. They had been taxed 
 without representation, and at last British troops were sent among 
 them to enforce subjection at the point of the bayonet. They 
 formed clubs to drive out the invaders. Shouting, "let us drive 
 out the ribalds — they have no business here," the crowd rushed 
 toward King street and made for the custom-house. At the sight 
 of an armed sentinel the mob shouted, "Kill him! kill him!" and 
 made an attack. Charles Botta, the Italian historian says: "There 
 was a band of the populace, led by a mulatto named Attucks, 
 who brandished their clubs and pelted them with snow-balls. The 
 soldiers received the advance of the populace at the point of their 
 bayonets. The scene was horrible. At length the mulatto and 
 
VArGHAX's PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVEii 
 
 65 
 
 twelve of liis companions i^ressmg forward environed tlie soldiers^ 
 striking tlieir muskets Avitli theii* clubs, cried to the multitude, 
 •Be not afraid — they dare not fire. AThy do you hesitate ? TTIiy 
 do you not kill them ? TThy not crush them out at once : ' " 
 
 Inspired by the words of Attucks the crowd rushed madly on 
 and. as they approached the soldiery, there was a discharge of 
 firearms. Attucks. the brave leader, had lifted his arm to strike 
 down Capt. Preston, the British officer in command, but he fell a 
 victim to the first gun shot. Two others fell with him and five 
 were wounded. The cry of bloodshed spread like wild fire. 
 Citizens crowded the streets, white witb rage. The z-hurch-bells 
 rang the alarm, and in a little while the whole country was aroused 
 to battle. 
 
 Crispus Attucks was buried from historic Fanueil Hall with 
 pomp and honor . He was no longer looked upon as a fugitive 
 slave on whose head a price had been set. but as a i^atriot leader 
 who had dared to shed his bloo;l in defiauce of British oppression. 
 Ilis porition had been taken with firmness and decision, f.jr in 
 advance of the massacre he had addressed a letter to the Tory 
 Governor of the provice of Massachusetts in these words: 
 
 Sir: You will hear from us with astomshment. You ought to hear 
 from us with horror. You are chargeable before God and roan with our 
 blood. The soldiers are but passive instruments, mere machtiies. neither 
 moral or voluntary agents in our destruction, more than the leaden pellets 
 with which we were wounded. You were a free agent. You acted coolly» 
 deliberately, with all that premeditated mahr^e. Jiot against us in. particu- 
 lar, but against the people in oreneral. which, in sight of the law. is an 
 ingredient in the composition of murder. You will hear from us further 
 hereafter. Crispus Attucks. 
 
 This letter has reference to a former skirmish before the fatal 
 day of massacre. 
 
 I : will thus be seen that the first blood shed in the cause of the 
 American Eevolution was that of a patriot man of color who had 
 lived twenty years of freedom af er having deliberately broken 
 the chains that bound him to a liie of slavery. ^here Crispus 
 Attucks had made his abode daring those twenty years has not 
 been made kii jwn to the present generation. Although a price 
 had been set upon his head i: is manifest that he did not go far 
 enough away from Boston to prevent his hearing the clanking of 
 the chains that were being forged to make Americans of every 
 creed and color the slaves of British tyranny. At the first mani- 
 festation of force he i^lac-ed himself at the head of the people by 
 right of having been born and ordained of God as a natural 
 
66 
 
 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 leader of men. He fell a martyr in a holy cause. Let his name 
 be held in sacred endearment. 
 
 The history of Crispus Attacks gives evidence that slaves are 
 entitled to freedom, and they deserve compensation for the labor 
 they performed when their time was not their own. 
 
 FREDERICK DOUGLASS. 
 
 Perhaps the best known man of color, now living, and the man 
 of all others who has been regarded as the representative man of 
 his race, is Frederick Douglass. A biographical sketch of this 
 remarkable negro reads more like romance than fact ; and yet 
 every word that has been published respecting him is fact without 
 the half having been told. 
 
 Mr. Douglass does not know his exact age, but he was probably 
 born in the year 1817 or 1818. In an interview with his old 
 master, who once held him as a slave, a few months prior to the 
 death of the latter, he was told that according to tlie recollection 
 of Captain Auld, he was born in the month of February, 1818. 
 He had always regarded himself one year older. The birthplace 
 of Douglass was in the district of Tuckahoe on the eastern shore 
 of Mar3dand. His eai ly years were marked by extreme poverty 
 and wretchedness. He was the slave of Captain Auld, who was a 
 severe taskmaster and selfishly cruel. Southern slave holders were 
 not generally cruel, but there were exceptions, and the case of 
 Frederick Douglass constituted an extraordinary exception. 
 
 When ten 3- ears old Douglass was sent to Mrs. Sophia Auld, 
 a relation by marriage to Captain Auld, to be reared as a 
 house servant in Baltimore. His situation was now greatly 
 improved. The woman had humane cliaracteristics, and noticing 
 that her servant was naturall}'^ bright and quick she began teach- 
 ing him the alphabet. But her husband ascertained what was 
 going on and soon put a stop to further instruction. Possibl}^ 
 this circumstance changed the whole tenor of Frederick Douglass', 
 life. Had Mrs. Auld been permitted to teach him to read, and to 
 have given him that kindly treatment which her heart prompted, 
 he might have been content to have remained in Baltimore, and 
 he would have endured a life of slavery as millions of others have 
 done. But the inhibition of the instruction he craved only 
 whetted his appetite for learning, and excited a determination to 
 be a free man at the earliest opportunity. He carried his spelling 
 book in his jacket and by sheer effort taught himself. When he 
 could read a little he invested his little earnings in a copy of the 
 
FREDERICK DOUGLASS. 
 
68 
 
 valtghan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 old Columbian Orator, and after reading the "Fanaticism of 
 Liberty" and the "Declaration of Independence" he made up his 
 mind that there was no just right in holding him in slavery. 
 He watched his chance and ran away. He had by this time 
 nearly reached his majority and was engaged to a free woman 
 of color . He made his way , as best he could , to New York , 
 whither his affianced wife followed him. They were married and 
 settled at New Bedford, Mass. Here he pursued a life of the 
 severest toil, doing any job of work he could procure. Here 
 several of his children were born. Through all his toil he con- 
 tinued his studies and developed an active mind that will compare 
 favorably with the educated talent of our first statesmen. He was 
 a regular reader of William Lloyd Garrison's Liberator, and 
 gauged his career after the system of that gentleman's teachings. 
 
 His first political address was delivered at Nantucket in 1841. 
 He was at once made an agent of the American Anti-Slavery 
 Society, and in that capacity he began a crusade for the freedom 
 and elevation of his race. His reputation began to extend all 
 over the states and to foreign countries. The rumor went abroad 
 that he was a fugitive from slavery, and there were constant 
 threats of his arrest. But his identity was not easily established, 
 as he had assumed the name of Frederick Douglass, and was not 
 suspected of being the runaway slave of Capt. Auld. The custom 
 of slave days was for the servant to bear the name of the master. 
 
 As his oratorical career spread his fame abroad Mr. Douglass 
 was pressed to visit England in the advancement of his work. 
 There he was lionized. He was the guest of John Bright and 
 British statesmen delighted to do him honor. He subsequently 
 engaged in journalism and was the editor of several publications. 
 While publishing Frederick Douglass' Paper he conceived the 
 idea of sending his journal to every member of congress, which he 
 did for several j-ears . 
 
 About this time Mr. Douglass made the acquaintance of John 
 Brown, of Harper's Ferry memory, and they became fast friends. 
 Together they formed plans for the liberation of slaves, but Mr. 
 Douglass did not approve of an armed insurrection and did his 
 best to induce Mr. Brown to abandon that program. In this, as 
 the world knows, he was not successful. Had Mr. Douglass been 
 successful in changing Mr. Brown's plans the Harper's Ferry 
 tragedy would not have occurred. 
 
 The association between Frederick Douglass and Mr. Brown 
 became known, and with it the information was imparted as t© 
 
vaughan's plea I or the old slaves. 
 
 69 
 
 Mr. Douglass' identity . Governor Wise, of Virginia, took measures 
 to have him arrested and restored to slaver}^. He addressed 
 a letter to President Buchanan, asking to have two detectives 
 commissioned as special mail agents that the}^ might shadow him 
 and, when convenient, arrest and take him south. But the facts 
 came to light, and acting under the advice of friends Mr. 
 Douglass repaired to Canada and thence sailed for Europe. He 
 remained abroad until he might safely return to America and 
 resume his anti-slavery work at home. 
 
 Durmg the war Mro Doaglass was a xDrominent figure in all 
 that appertained to his race. He urged the issue of the emanci- 
 pation proclamation with all the vigor and force of his great intel- 
 lect , and when Mr . Lincoln finally became persuaded that emancipa- 
 tion, as a war measure, was a union necessity he proceeded to act. 
 When the first proclamation of September 1862 was made public, 
 it is prob ible that- no happier man lived on American soil than 
 Frederick Douglass. The work of a lifetime was accomplished, the 
 prayers of a lifetime had been answered, and the oppressed 
 people of his race were practically free. 
 
 Naturall}', a man of Mr. Douglass' patriotic views on national 
 questions, and his gre?ot desire to see his race elevated to a high 
 standard of respectability, caused him to take a deep interest in 
 the purposes of the war during its continuance . He was among 
 the first to encourage the enlistment of colored troops, and to 
 have them put upon a footing with white soldiers. He had 
 become a man of large Ys'ealth, and he used his private means 
 freely in the organization of black regiments, and in equipping 
 the troops for service in the field. Two of his sons were among 
 the first to enlist and thousands of others went with them to the 
 front. While the young men of his race were taking part in 
 active service, Mr. Douglass interested himself in securing for the 
 negro troops the right of exchange and the general humane treat- 
 ment extended to captives taken in war. In this work he was 
 successful in a marked degree . 
 
 After the conclusion of hostilities Mr . Douglass was an active 
 participant in the exciting scenes that took place in congress and 
 other legislative bodies looking to riveting the rights established 
 for the negro race upon the federal constitution, and the consti- 
 tutions of those states wherein slavery had previously been a 
 recognized institution. He was very active and influential in 
 procuring the passage of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments 
 to the federal constitution, the freedmen's bureau bill, the civil 
 
70 
 
 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 rights act and other legislation necessary for the peace, comfort 
 and protection of his race . 
 
 Following the busy scenes and events of the reconstruction 
 period Mr. Douglass entered the lecture field and achieved great 
 distinction as a platform orator. In this theater of action he 
 encountered much of the prejudice entertained by white people 
 against the black race, simply because of their color. Great 
 crowds rushed to hear him discuss the civic questions of the day, 
 but very few desired to care for his comfort and well-being as he 
 filled his lecture engagements. All were anxious to hear, but 
 scarcely any were willing to entertain. An incident of this 
 character is worth relating. 
 
 Mr. Douglass had been invited to lecture before the library 
 association at Evansville, Indiana. The question arose, "What 
 shall we do with him?" None of the gentlemen directly con- 
 nected with the association cared to have him as a guest. By 
 chance Col. A. T. Whittlesey, who had been postmaster at Evans- 
 ville during the administration of President Johnson, and was 
 then the editor of the Evansville Daily Courier, and now of the 
 Omaha Daily Democrat, learned of a heated discussion upon the 
 subject between gentlemen of political sympathy with Mr. Doug- 
 lass, not one of whom were willing to open their doors to the 
 great orator. Col. Whittlesey at once addressed a note to Dr. H. 
 W. Cloud, of the lecture committee, stating that he would be 
 glad to have Mr. Douglass become his guest, and that all colored 
 persons, ladies and gentlemen, who desired to pay their respects to 
 Mr. Douglass during his sojourn would be just as welcome at his 
 I)arlors as white persons who might see fit to call. 
 
 Mr. Whittlesey and his wife had frequently entertained such 
 eminent statesmen as Thomas A. Hendricks, Senator Voorhees 
 and other persons of recognized political reputation. It was 
 remarked that as their guest Mr. Douglass would be extended 
 all the courtesy and attention due to his great ability, but for 
 political reasons party leaders refused to permit the proposed 
 arrangement to be carried out. Mr. Douglass was not allowed to 
 be Col. Whittlesey's guest, nor the guest of any other respectable 
 white gentleman in Evansville. Neither was he provided with 
 quarters in any of the public hotels in the city . He was accommo- 
 dated at a negro boarding house kept by a Widow Carter, a very 
 highly respected colored lady, and no white persons called to pny 
 their respects other than the lecture committee having him 
 immediately under their charge. It is scarcely necessary to say 
 
VAUGHAX S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 71 
 
 that this little episode created an intense local excitement for a 
 time, and it serves to show the deep seated prejudice entertained 
 against the colored race, even at the North, by persons claiming to 
 be the especial friends and champions of the blacks. But this 
 prejudice is fast disappearing, and a feeling of brotherly kindness 
 and regard is gradually extending. 
 
 In the civil service since the war Mr. Douglass has been a 
 very conspicuous figure. He was a presidential elector in the 
 state of New York in 1872, was made Marshal of the District of 
 Columbia in 1877 and Register of Deeds of the District in 1881. 
 He continued to hold, that office about a 3 ear and a half under the 
 administration of President Cleveland. He is now American 
 Minister at San Domingo. He is in all respects a great man, 
 having few equals in any walk of life. He is purely a self-made 
 man, and he has raised himself to the top-most round of the 
 ladder of fame. He is a credit to the negro race and an honor to 
 any people. 
 
 SAMUEL R. LOWERY. 
 
 The subject of this sketch is a person of a different cast in life 
 from most of the others who have made a record for distinguishment 
 in the annals of the black race. AVhile descended from slave 
 stock, on the one side, he was not himself a slave, his mother 
 having been a free woman from the time of his birth. But his 
 father was a slave, and never breathed the air of personal freedom 
 until the edict of emancipation was promulgated. He was then 
 at liberty to meet his distinguished son on the plane of libert}^, 
 which is the natural right of all men without regard to color. 
 
 Samuel R. Lowery was born December 9, 1830, from the 
 union of a slave father and a mother who was a full-blooded 
 Cherokee Indian. The father is living, or was two 3^ears ago, at 
 Nashville, Tenn., and in all that goodly city there is no man 
 who has a juster pride in his offspring than Father Lowery enter- 
 tains for the progress made by his distinguished son. Mr. 
 Lowery lost his mother when he was about eight ^^ears old. At 
 the age of sixteen ^^ears Mr. Lowery took upon himself the 
 business of school teaching, and for one so j^oung met with 
 tolerable success, and continued to teach until he was twenty years 
 old. During his course as a teacher he fell in with Rev. Talbot 
 Fanning, who aided the j^oung man in his aspirations and was 
 instrumental in securing for him a good education. He entered 
 the ministry and for about eight years was pastor of the 
 
SAMUEL K. LOWERY. 
 
vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 73 
 
 Christian church at Cincinnati, Ohio. AVhile following the life 
 of a Christian minister in the Queen City he married a colored 
 lady of culture, and soon afterward took up his residence in 
 Canada. He returned to the United States in 1863, after the 
 appearance of President Lincoln's second proclamation, and pro- 
 ceeding to Nashville, near the scenes of his birthplace, he began 
 preaching the doctrine of salvation as taught in the Christian 
 churches, but he coupled with it the freedom of the southern 
 slaves as an incident of salvation. He became chaplain of Col. 
 Crawford's regiment of negro soldiers, the same being the 
 Fortieth regiment of the United States infantry regulars. He 
 was afterward transferred to the Ninth United States heavy 
 artillerj^, with which he remained in the capacity of chaplain 
 until the dawn of peace. 
 
 Mr. Lowery opened a school in Rutherford county, Tennessee, 
 after the war, but the prevalence of political excitement prevented 
 his success in that work. He then took a law course and was 
 admitted to the bar at Nashville. In 1875 he took up ^^his 
 residence at Hunts ville, Alabama, and pursued his legal calling 
 with marked success. One of his cases having been carried to the 
 supreme court of the United States he followed it to AYashington 
 for the purpose of making an argument, and he was admitted to 
 the bar of the highest tribunal of the land upon motion of Mrs. 
 Belva A. Lockwood, the renowned female attorney. While in 
 Washington his two daughters, aged respectively 15 and 10 years, 
 visited an exhibition of silkworms and became interested in the 
 silk culture. They persuaded their father to purchase some silk- 
 worm eggs, which he did, and with the aid of the southern 
 mulberry tree as a feeder of the worms Mr. Lowery began the 
 silk culture at Huntsville, which he has promoted to a valuable 
 industry. After beginning this work Mr. Lowery visited all the 
 silk industries in America and mastered all the points to which 
 his attention was directed. 
 
 Mr. Lowery has abandoned the practice of the law and has 
 given his whole time to the culture of silk. At the New Orleans 
 industrial exposition he was awarded the first prize for fine silk 
 goods, over an old French establishment to which a premium of 
 $1,000 had been paid as an inducement to make an exhibit. The 
 silk factory at Huntsville is in a very prosperous condition, and 
 the name of Samuel R. Lowery, preacher, lawyer and manufac- 
 turer, is among those standing high in the progress of the 
 colored people. His father was a slave ! 
 
74 
 
 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 HON. ROBERT SMALLS. 
 
 Few of the ex-slaves deserve more favorable mention or higher 
 honor than the ex-member of Congress from the Beaufort district 
 of South Carolina. Mr. Smalls was born at Beaufort, in the 
 district which he subsequently represented in the house of repre- 
 sentatives at Washington, April 5, 1839. As a slave his 
 advantages of education were limited, but by hook or crook he 
 managed to secure the smattering of an English education. In 
 1851 he went to Charleston and was emploj^ed in the business 
 of ship rigging. In this business he learned the business of equip- 
 ping a vessel and incidentally the duties of a sailor. In that 
 capacity he became connected with the Planter, a transport doing 
 business in Charleston harbor. He was employed on board that 
 vessel when Fort Sumter was fired upon in 1861. The Planter 
 was taken in possession by the Confederate authorities and was 
 used as a dispatch boat until she was captured and turned over to 
 the blockading fleet of the United States navy, May 13, 1862. 
 
 The capture of the vessel was accomplished by Robert Smalls. 
 The day before, the vessel had been engaged in removing guns 
 from Coles Island to James Island. After the work was done the 
 boat returned to Charleston. The officers went ashore, leaving a 
 crew of eight colored men on board in charge of Mr. Smalls, who 
 was a wheelman and acting pilot. The crew was called together, 
 and Robert Smalls laid before the men on deck his plan for turn- 
 ing over the vessel to the United States squadron, to which all 
 assented , although two of the men became frightened and con- 
 cluded to remain behind. The scheme was hazardous, as the boat 
 was obliged to pass under the guns of the fort and the shore 
 batteries . Detection was certain death . At 2 o'clock in the morning 
 steam was raised and the Planter, with a valuable cargo of guns 
 and ammunition, designed for the equipment of Fort Ripley, a 
 new fortification erected in the harbor, moved up to the North 
 Atlantic wharf, where Smalls' wife and two children, three men 
 and four other women, were taken on board. All were colored 
 people. The Planter passed Fort Johnson, first sounding her 
 whistle in salute, and receiving the customary salute in return, 
 and proceeded down the bay. Passing Fort Sumter Smalls leaned 
 out of the pilot house with the broad sombrero of Relay, the 
 master of the vessel, drawn over his face, and was mistaken for 
 that officer. 
 
 The required signal was given and responded to. After pass- 
 ing the Fort the Planter was headed for Morris Island, then 
 
HON. EOBEET SilALLS. 
 
76 
 
 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 occupied by Hatch's light artillery. When it became evident that 
 the Planter was heading for the Federal fleet the Hatch battery at 
 Morris' Island was signalled to stop her; but it was too late. The 
 Planter displayed a white flag, but in the darkness it was not dis- 
 tinguished. Qlie was mistaken for a Confederate ram, and the 
 naval vessels drew out of her way . The ship Onward , not being a 
 steamer, prepared for a broadside, when the lookout chanced to 
 observe the flag of truce. When within hailing distance her char- 
 acter was explained and the Planter was speedily surrendered to 
 Captain Nichols, of the United States navy. Robert Smalls was 
 afterwards transferred to the gun-boat Crusader, and on board of 
 that vessel and the captured Planter he continued to do duty dur- 
 ing the war. He was honored with a captain's rank in the United 
 States navy, but he was never commissioned as such an officer. 
 
 After the war a bill was introduced in Congress to place the 
 name of Robert Smalls upon the retired list of the United States 
 navy, and a voluminous report was submitted showing the value of 
 the property which he captured, and the meritorious service which 
 he rendered to the Government of the United States. Yet, strange 
 to say, the bill did not pass for the frivolous reason assigned that 
 there was no precedent for placing a civilian upon the retired list of 
 the navy. Had Mr. Smalls been a distinguished politician of the 
 party in power he would, no doubt, have been voted a high reward 
 for services rendered the Union cause. 
 
 At the close of the war Captain Smalls, as he was called, drop- 
 ped, naturally, into civil life. He was elected a member of the 
 convention which framed the constitution of South Carolina under 
 the reconstruction acts, and took an active part in the proceedings. 
 In 1868 he was made a member of the state legislature, and was the 
 author of the state civil rights bill. He then served a part of a 
 term in the state senate as the successor of Judge Wright, and after- 
 wards was elected for a full term. He occupied a high rank in the 
 South Carolina militia, holding the rank of lieutenant-colonel of 
 the third regiment, and was made a brigadier-general in 1873. 
 
 General Smalls was a delegate to three national conventions of 
 the republican party — at Philadelphia, in 1872, when Grant and 
 Wilson received the party nomination; at Cincinnati, in 1876, 
 when Hayes and Wheeler were nominated, and again at Chicago, 
 in 1884, when Blaine and Logan were placed in the field. He has 
 served three successive terms in Congress, having been elected the 
 first time in 1880, to the Forty-seventh Congress; he was re-elected 
 in 1882 to the Forty-eighth Congress, and again in 1884 to the 
 
YAUGHAX'S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 77 
 
 Fortj'-ninth Congress. He is a gentleman of pleasant demeanor, 
 affable and approachable, and he is in ever}^ respect an honor to his 
 race . 
 
 PROF. JOSEPH E. JOXES. 
 
 Among the remarkable men, of the African race who 
 have sprung from the lap of the institution of slaver}^, there are 
 some who have distinguished themselves in the field of literature 
 and learning in a high degree, and have made a mark in educa- 
 tional progress quite as eminent as those who have taken a high 
 rank in political life. In this catalogue very honorable mention 
 deserves to be made of Prof. J. E. Jones, of the theological semi- 
 nar}^ at Iviclimond, Virginia. 
 
 Prof. Jones was born in slaver}' in the citv of Lynchburg, 
 October 15, 1850. He is still a comparatively young man. He 
 began life at the age of six 3'ears, as stripper in a tobacco factor}-, 
 greatl}' to the disgust of his mother, who had a mother's heart and 
 ambition for her offspring. The laws of Virginia forbade the 
 education of slaves, and there opened up for the mother only a life 
 of toil for her boy. Yet she conceived the idea that some time in 
 the future the negroes would become free, and that her son would 
 be somebody. She frequently expressed such sentiments to her 
 fellow slaves, and on one occasion she stated her opinion to her 
 master. The woman was esteemed to be stark mad. There was, 
 however, method in her madness, and having saved some money 
 of her own, she procured the services of a negro in the same 
 family to which she belonged, but who had a limited education, to 
 give her son elementary lessons. Two or three evenings a week 
 were devoted to this purpose . It was near the end of the war , in 
 186-4, and the condition of the confederate cause was becoming 
 desperate. The teacher became frightened and concluded that it 
 would be prudent for him to suspend his educational functions. 
 After much persuasion he concluded to continue the lessons every 
 Sunday morning from 10 to 12 o'clock. About this time the 
 teacher's owner ascertained that his slave could read and write, 
 and the master accordingly sold a slave that was such unsafe 
 property as to be possessed of a little education. This was a sad 
 blow to the aspirations of young Joe Jones. 
 
 But the fond mother could not give over her project of 
 securing an education for her son. A sick confederate soldier 
 happened to come in her locality and she offered him lodging and 
 food in case he would give lessons to the young lad. Thus matters 
 continued for several weeks until the surrender of General Lee at 
 
PROF. JOSEPH E. JONES. 
 
VAUGHAN S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES, 
 
 79 
 
 Appomattox. Then followed the universal recognition of the 
 success of emancipation, and a brighter day dawned for the 
 aspiring youth. He at once became a student in a private 
 school opened at Lynchburg, where he continued two years. 
 
 In October, 1868, young Jones entered the Richmond Insti- 
 tute, now the Richmond Seminary, in which he figures as a 
 Professor. Here he received instruction three years and "then 
 entered the Madison University at Hamilton, Is. Y., where he 
 graduated in 1876, having taken a complete preparatory and 
 college course. The same year the American Baptist Home Mis- 
 sion Society, of New York, appointed him as instructor in the 
 Richmond Institute, and made him professor of language and 
 philosopli}^. The following year he was ordained as a Baptist 
 Minister, and his Alma Mater conferred upon him the degree of 
 Master of Arts. He is now -professor of Ilomeletics and the 
 Greek language in the Richmond Theological Seminary. 
 
 The career of this able and accomplished student furnishes 
 abundant evidence that the despised negro slave of other dsijs may 
 become eminent in letters and renowned in the service of the 
 Divine Master. 
 
 PROF. JOHN H. BURRUS, 
 
 The surrender of 1865 found three slave hoys named Burrus 
 at Marshall, Texas, with the remnant of Bragg's armj^. With 
 their mother they were sent to Shreveport, La., thence to New 
 Orleans and finally to Memphis, Tenn. Here the subject of this 
 sketch, John H. Burrus, found emplo^nnent as a steamboat cook. 
 About 1866 he went to Nashville and became a hotel waiter. He 
 saved his money and took to study of evenings in order to 
 acquire an education, receiving instruction from two lady boarders 
 of the hotel. By 1867 he had saved $300, and then determined 
 to take a course at the Fisk Universit}^. During the vacations he 
 taught school. Thus he continued until 1874, During the sum- 
 mer of that year he traveled with a religious panorama. In 1876 
 he was elected a delegate to the Republican National Convention at 
 Cincinnati and there voted for the nomination of Rutherford 
 B. Hayes for president. 
 
 After the convention Mr. Burrus made an extensive tour 
 throughout the North and East. On his return home he was 
 chosen principal of the Yazoo city school at Yazoo, Miss. He 
 subsequently taught two years in his Alma Mater college, the Fisk 
 University, and received the degree of A. M. In 1879 he began 
 reading law and was admitted to the bar in 1881. In 1883 he 
 
FREED, UNEDUCATED, NO MONEY AND NO FRIENDS-RAGS AND POVERTY 
 
 J3«.B1X:4X^, HIS PORTION. 
 
VAUGHAN*S PLEA FOR THU OLD SLAVES. 
 
 81 
 
 was selected for the presidency of the Alcorn Agricultural and 
 Mechanical College at Rodney, Miss., which has grown to be one 
 of the most important institutions of learning in the South under 
 his administration. He is a gentleman of the finest culture, 
 devoted to his profession, and highly esteemed throughout 
 Mississippi by all classes of people. 
 
 Besides representing his people at the Cincinnati Convention 
 in 1876 Prof. Burrus has been a good deal of a politician and has 
 manifested an aptitude for public life. He was secretary of the 
 Tennessee republican convention in 1878 and was secretary and 
 treasurer of the State Executive Committee for two years. He 
 was elected a school director at Nashville in 1878 and was re-elected 
 in 1881, beating the combined vote of two competitors, one white 
 man and one negro, although the majority of the people of the 
 district were white. The other two directors were white men, yet 
 Mr. Burrus was made chairman of the board and charged with 
 the duty of visiting all the schools and seeing that the course of 
 instruction was rigidly followed. 
 
 Since being placed at the head of the Alcorn University Prof. 
 Burrus has abjured political life and proposes to devote the 
 balance of his days strictly to educational interests. He has done 
 much towards the elevation of his race. He does not believe in 
 any man complaining that his color has kept him down in lif^. 
 He believes that brains and character will always win. He has 
 scarcely yet reached the prime of life, and there is a prospect of 
 his accomplishing a glorious work in the future. 
 
 WILEY JONES. 
 
 Among the successful ex-slaves the name of Wiley Jones, of 
 Arkansas, shines with resplendent luster. All success is the result 
 of innate qualities w^iich mark and make a man. In a pecuniary 
 sense Mr. Jones has met with unbounded success, and he certainly 
 deserves the good fortune which has attended his labors since he 
 was released from bondage. 
 
 Wiley Jones is a native of Georgia, having been born in 
 Madison county, July 14, 1848. His parents are dead. When 
 only five years old he was taken to Arkansas by his master, whose 
 name was Fitz Yell. As soon as he was old enough he was made 
 a house-boy, and he also drove the family carriage. He continued 
 in these lines of emplo3^ment for two years or more. His master 
 was an original union man and enlisted in the Federal army at the 
 first opportunit}^. His slave, Wiley Jones, followed him, and he 
 
THE N^EGEO. 
 
 The American white 
 people have grown 
 rich from the stolen 
 labor of the negro, who 
 is the friend to the 
 white race, ever ready 
 to defend their wives, 
 children and property. 
 The negro is a pro- 
 gressive, honorable 
 citizen. 
 
 . The Indian is the 
 hater of the white race. 
 He has cost the gov- 
 ernment millions of 
 dollars, and has been 
 
 a murderer of the race for hundreds of years. Still, the Indian is 
 provided for with food, clothes, money, guns, etc. He can ride 
 free, north, east, west and south on all railroads, while thousands 
 of honest, faithful negroes are starving for the necessities of life 
 almost at our very doors. Let the honest tax-payer and patriotic 
 American aid in righting this great national wrong. 
 
 THE IKDIAI^. 
 
VAUGHAX'S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLATES. 
 
 S3 
 
 continued in camp until peace was proclaimed. He then went to 
 AVaco, Texas, and drove from Brazos river to San Antonio, haul- 
 ing cotton to the frontier. He next returned to Arkansas and 
 worked on a plantation for monthh' wages. In 1881 he went into 
 the tobacco and cigar trade, in which business he rapidh" accumu- 
 lated a fortune. He is naturally a shrewd trader, and to his 
 natural quickness of perception he is indebted for his business suc- 
 cess, for he never had the advantage of a system of schooling, 
 and hence his education is very limited, being such as he has 
 picked up in life, as he came in contact with men and events. 
 The school of adversity and experience is often the best teacher 
 of men, especiall}' of the class of persons who never yield to 
 discouragement in life. 
 
 Mr. Jones is now a resident of Pine Bluff, one of the rapidly 
 developing cities of the state of Arkansas. He has extended his 
 business b}^ securing the street car charter for that thriving x:)lace, 
 and he has placed his car lines under thorough equipment. He is 
 also treasurer of the Industrial Fair Association. He is the sole 
 owner of the grounds whereon the fair has been held, and of the 
 race track and park, which covers fifty-five acres of ground h'ing 
 one mile distant from the main street of the cit}^. The street car 
 stables are also located on this tract. 
 
 In his mercantile business Mr. Jones carries a stock of goods 
 valued at 815,000, and he estimates his total possessions at 
 $125,000, which is augmenting at a rapid rate. In all probability 
 the clay is near at hand when he will be accounted a millionaire. 
 He is also a great fancier of blooded stock, and owns a herd of 
 Durham and llolstein cattle. He is likewise engaged in breeding 
 fine trotting stock, and one of his stallions, " Executor," has 
 a record of 2:21. On his farm he has about a dozen choice bred 
 mares, and he keeps a professional driver to handle them, which 
 insures the best of care and a fine development of speed. 
 
 Taken altogether, AVilev Jones ma}" be regarded as one of the 
 most successful business men of the countrj^. It is onh' about a 
 quarter of a centurj' since he was emancipated from the bondage 
 of slaverj", and his advancement since that time has been prodig- 
 ious. He is regarded as the soul of honor by his white neighbors, 
 who esteem him as a gentleman of the first-class. He is liberal, 
 charitable and humane, as well as enterprising and successful in 
 business affairs. 
 
84 
 
 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 JOHN WESLEY TERRY. 
 
 This gentleman is one of the natural mechanics of the land, 
 who has raised himself from an humble origin to an honored 
 position in the street railway service of a great city. He was 
 born in Murray county, Tennessee, in the year 1846, and was the 
 slave of one William Pickard until released from bondage by the 
 circumstances of the rebellion. His earliest recollections are of a 
 very crude nature. His mother was a field hand and was obliged 
 to work on the farm the live-long day. Having no other 
 resource, the subject of this sketch and an older brother, when but 
 prattling infants, were placed in a pen every morning, with a 
 sufficiency of food and water to answer their daily necessities, and 
 left to their own resources until the tired mother returned from 
 her daily toil to her cabin and her infant children. Truly this 
 was a hard beginning of an humble life to produce the grand 
 results which have followed in the years of manhood. 
 
 When the union armies entered Columbia, Tennessee, in the 
 summer of 1863, the mother of Mr. Terry took her children and 
 started for the Federal lines. She was received and cared for, and 
 for a season was offered protection. The elder son, Henry, was 
 old enough to bear arms, and enlisted in the union service. In 
 time a change of commanders occurred at Columbia, and one Col. 
 Myers assumed control of the place. He made it a rule to return 
 all slaves to their masters when claimed. Accordingly Mrs. Terry 
 and her younger son were sent back to Murray county. Arrived 
 there the young man declared his emancipation to his former 
 master, and threatened to report him to the union commander at 
 the adjacent town for harboring and feeding rebel soldiers, 
 that county having been occupied by union troops during their 
 absence at Columbia. His old master begged him not to make 
 such a, report, promised to recognize his freedom and pay him 
 wages for future service. Accordingly young Terry worked for 
 two years as a farm hand for the man who had formerly been his 
 lawful master. 
 
 In 1866 young Wesley went to Nashville to look for his 
 mother, who had made a second attempt at escape from bondage. 
 Having found her, he began the business of steamboating, while 
 his mother kept house for him. In 1875 he went to Chicago and 
 entered the employ of the West Division Street Car Company 
 and worked for the corporation two years. He then went to 
 Washington, D. C, and entered the Way land Seminary, where he 
 remained four years. He completed the normal course and then 
 
VAUGHAX'S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 85 
 
 took a theological course, with a view of entering the ministr}- of 
 the Baptist church, of which he was a member. But having con- 
 tracted some debts during his collegiate course, he concluded to 
 resume work in the car shops, where he has continued to the 
 present time. In the course of a year he was made foreman, and 
 has a large force of mechanics under his direction, he being the 
 onl}^ man of color in the company's emplo^^ment. He is highly 
 respected b}^ the officers of the company, and by the men who 
 work under him. His skill as a machinist is of the highest order. 
 He is a member of the Knights of Labor and a director of the 
 Central Park Building and Loan association. 
 
 From a plantation hand in Tennessee this 3"0ung man has 
 risen to affluence and respectability. The progress of the ex-slave 
 appears to be onward and u[>ward. 
 
 p. B. S. PIXCHBACK. 
 
 Few men in the South have attracted so large a share of public 
 attention since the days of emancipation as the Hon. Pinckney 
 T^oTitoji. Stewart "P^nchbaek . of New Orleans. He was born in 
 Homies C'ouniy, JN'Iiss., i>lay lO, iSoT. He was the son of Major 
 William Pinchback and a slave mother of mixed blood, Eliza 
 Stewart, who claimed to have both Kegro and Indian blood in her 
 veins. Major Pinchback manumitted the girl Eliza Stewart, who 
 bore him ten children, so it can scarcel}^ be said that Gov. Pinch- 
 back ever was a slave, though the son of a slave mother. He is 
 the sole survivor of the large famil}'. The mother lived to a 
 ripe old age, dying in 1884. 
 
 In 1846 3^oung Pinchback with an elder brother was sent to 
 Cincinnati to Gilmore's High School where they remained two 
 3-ears. On their return home they found Major Pinchback on his 
 dying bed. The mother with five children hurried back to 
 Cincinnati after the funeral in order to prevent the enslavement 
 of the children by the white heirs of Major Pinchback 's estate. 
 While there the oldest son lost his mind . This calamity' left the 
 care of the family upon the subject of this sketch. He was then 
 only twelve years old. He obtained work as a cabin boy on a 
 canal boat at eight dollars a month, on the Miami canal, between 
 Cincinnati and Toledo. He followed the canal for several 3'ears, 
 on the Miami canal and on the Wabash and Erie canal in Indiana, 
 for some time making his home at Terre Haute. From 1854 to 
 1861 he took to the business of steamboating on the Missouri, the 
 Mississippi, the Ped and the Yazoo rivers, rising to the dignity of 
 
p. B. S. riNCHBACK. 
 
VAUGHAX'S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 87 
 
 a steward, wliich was the liigliest position a colored man could 
 command in those days. 
 
 The career of Mr. Pinchback as a steamboat steward was 
 brought to a termination b}' the outbreak of the civil war in 1861. 
 The day he was 25 years old, Ma}^ 10, 1862, he abandoned the 
 steaniljoat Alonzo Cliilds at Yazoo City, Miss., ran the confederate 
 Ijlockade and arrived in ^S'ew Orleans. He had scarcely arrived 
 there before he had a difficulty with his brother-in-law. who was 
 wounded in the alfra^'. He was arrested on civil process and 
 gave bail. Before his case came on for trial he w^as again arrested 
 by the military, tried by court martial and committed to a term of 
 two years in the workhouse on a charge of assault with intent to 
 murder. He was committed to the workhouse ]Mav 25. 1862, but 
 was released August 18 of the same 3'ear in order that he might 
 enlist in the First Louisiana Volunteer Infantr}'. cnlir^^tment 
 being the condition of his release. 
 
 vSoon after entering the military service Gen. B. F. Butler, 
 then in command at New Orleans, issued his order calling upon 
 the free men of color in the Crescent City to take up arms in 
 defenrjc of the union. Mr. Pinchback vras made a recruiting 
 sergeant and he opened an ofiice for the enlistment of colored 
 soldiers. On the 12th of October the Second Pegiment of the 
 Louisiana Native Guards was mustered into service with Captain 
 P. B. S. Pinchback in command of Company A. His career in 
 the army was brief but stormy. He strove to maintain his own 
 dignity and the rights of the troops under his command. The 
 Federal soldiers vrere as hostile to the black troops as the most 
 belligerent rebels. Capt .Pinchback was in hot w^ater all the time. 
 He was in constant troulile with the street car' officials, who 
 ejected him time and again. He also had a difficulty with the 
 colonel of his regiment, whom he accused of mistreating his men. 
 His troubles came so thick and fast that September 3, 1863, he 
 tendered his resignation and it was accepted. 
 
 But Capt. Pinchback could not be idle. He soon sought an 
 interview^ wdth Gen. N. P. Banks, who succeeded Gen. Butler. 
 The General was favorably impressed and issued an order permit- 
 ting Capt. Pinchback to recruit a company of colored cavalry. 
 The company was raised but a commission was refused to Pinch- 
 back because of hi- color. This act of injustice closed his mili- 
 tary career. He did not again seek to serve his country as a 
 soldier . 
 
88 
 
 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 Mr. Pinch back soon turned his attention to political affairs. 
 In the fall of 1865 he spoke in Mobile, Montgomery, and Selma, 
 Alabama, denouncing the unjust treatment which the colored 
 people were receiving at the hands of lawless and vicious men. 
 April 9, 1867 he organized the Fourth Ward Republican Club in 
 New Orleans, and he was elected a member of the republican 
 state committee, a position he has occupied almost continuously 
 since that time. He was appointed a commissioner of customs by 
 Hon. Wm. Pitt Kellogg, May 22, 1867, Mr. Kellogg being col- 
 lector of the port at that time. He, however, declined the 
 position to become a candidate for a seat in the constitutional 
 convention then about to be held. He was elected and was a 
 leading member of the convention. He reported the civil rights 
 article guaranteeing equality to all the citizens of the state. At 
 the first election under the new constitution he was elected a state 
 senator. In 1868 he was chosen a delegate-at-large to the Chicago 
 convention which nominated Gen. Grant for the presidency. 
 
 The next year he entered into business and established the com- 
 mission and cotton factorage house of Pinchback and Antoine. 
 The firm did an immense business and had Mr. Pinchback kept out 
 of politics, he would probably have become one of the wealthiest 
 men in the world in a very short time. As it was Jie accumulated 
 a handsome fortune. 
 
 In December, 1870, Mr. Pinchback engaged in the publication 
 of the New Orleans Louisianian, which he continued about eleven 
 years. It was the organ of the colored race. The same year he 
 endeavored to organize a Mississippi river packet company but 
 did not meet with sufficient encouragement and he abandoned the 
 enterprise. December 6, 1871, he was elected president protem cf 
 the state senate to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Hon. 
 Oscar J. Dunn, and became the Acting Lieutenant Governor of 
 the state. The next year he was nominated as the republican 
 candidate for governor. The federal office holders had previously 
 nominated Wm. Pitt Kellogg for that office. There was also a 
 democratic ticket in the field, which was certain of success unless a 
 compromise could be made between the two wings of the republican 
 party. Such a compromise was finally arranged and Kellogg was 
 made governor while Pinchback was elected congressman- at-large; 
 and the success of this mutual arrangement j^robably had the effect 
 of continuing republican supremacy in Louisiana for three or four 
 3^ears . But there was a factional fight raging inside of the republican 
 ranks, wMch could not fail to injure party domination in tb' 
 
vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 89 
 
 long run, and it seriously impaired tlie hope of Governor Pinch- 
 back continuing in the same prominence he had occupied since the 
 close of the war. Governor Warmoth espoused the cause of 
 Horace Greeley, and for a time acted with the democratic party. 
 When the legislature convened Governor Pinchhack was chosen 
 United States senator, but the Warmoth republicans refused to 
 vote for him , and although he was declared elected and received a 
 certificate, there was so much doubt surrounding the case that the 
 Federal senate refused to seat him. After a continued reference 
 for three years, to the senatorial committee on elections, the right 
 of Governor Pinchback to be sworn as a member was denied by a 
 vote of 29 ayes and 32 noes. This contest was a very remarkable 
 one. There was no other claimant for the vacant seat, and Gov. 
 Pinchback was armed with full credentials for the place he sought, 
 but his right to a seat w^as finally denied. While this long con- 
 test w^as pending the term of congress, to which Gov. Pinchback 
 was elected as a member at large to the house of representatives, 
 expired. The very remarkable picture was presented in this 
 instance of a man holding certificates of election to both houses of 
 congress, and though asking admission, he was not accepted in 
 either house. 
 
 When the political troubles came on in Louisiana which fol- 
 lowed the appointment of the National Electoral Commission, in 
 1877, Governor Pinchback managed to pay off some of his political 
 debts. He was instrumental in having the Nicholls state govern- 
 ment recognized, although the electoral vote of the state was 
 counted for Mr. Hayes, while S. B. Packard, the republican candi- 
 date for governor against General Nicholls, had more votes in the 
 state than were cast for the Haj^es and Wheeler electoral ticket . 
 
 The political asperities existing within the republican party of 
 Louisiana, measurably died away after the state passed under demo- 
 cratic control. One of the earliest acts of the administration of 
 Governor Kicholls was to appoint Mr. Pinchback a member of the 
 State Board of Education, a position he had already held with 
 acceptability for six years. He was appointed an internal revenue 
 agent March 5, 1879, and held the office until he was elected, from 
 Madison Parish, to a seat in the convention called to remodel the 
 first reconstruction constitution of Louisiana. He was a delegate at 
 large to the Chicago convention of 1880, which nominated Garfield 
 and Arthur, and when General Arthur became President after 
 Guiteau's assassination of President Garfield, he appointed Gover- 
 nor Pinchback to the office of collector at Js^ew Orleans. 
 
90 
 
 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 Although advanced in years beyond the ordinary life of students , 
 Governor Pinchback entered the law school of the State University 
 of Louisiana, in 1885, and April 10, 1886, he was admitted to the 
 bar in the city of New Orleans, just one month before he was forty- 
 nine years old. It is not often that a man passes through nearly a 
 half century of existence before he makes application for admission 
 to the bar in the courts of a great city, but it must be borne in 
 mind that Governor Pinckney B. S. Pinchback is a ver}^ wonderful 
 man. He would succeed where thousands of others fail. 
 
 Governor Pinchback is in the enjoj^ment of a large legal practice 
 and is coining money. He is wealthy. There are few men of larger 
 liberality than he. The vicissitudes of his life have been such as 
 attach to the fortunes of very few men. Of large brain, of large 
 heart and broad views. Governor Pinchback is a man to make him- 
 self felt wherever his future lines may be cast. He belongs to a 
 race of men who could not be otherwise than aggressive, but his 
 aggressions have always been found earnest, and honest, as the seem- 
 ing right commanded the approbation of his judgment. The future 
 of Governor Pinchback will likely be found as interesting as his 
 past, if circumstances shall again call him into the seething turmoil 
 of public strife. 
 
 BLANCHE K. BRUCE. 
 
 Here we have a man with a woman's name. He might as well 
 have been named Mary or Jane as Blanche; but his mother gave 
 him the name and that is all we know about it. He bears it 
 worthily and well. 
 
 Blanche K. Bruce was born in Virginia, March 1, 1841. His 
 parents were slaves, and he was born in bondage. In his early 
 days his mother removed to St. Loais and he grew nearly to 
 manhood in that city. While there, a little barefoot, ragged 
 urchin, peddling newspapers on the levee, he was one day accosted 
 by a gentleman who was hastily making his way down the levee, 
 enroute to a steamboat which was nearty ready to pnll out upon its 
 destination for the lower Mississippi river, with: 
 
 " Here, you damned little nigger, take this satchel and carry 
 it aboard that steamboat/' pointing to it, " or I'll throw you in 
 the river." 
 
 The boy took a package, nearly as big as himself, and hurried 
 upon the steamboat. The owner of the luggage came aboard just 
 as the stage-plank was being pulled upon deck , and the ' ' damned 
 little nigger ' ' had to hustle ashore without getting one cent for his 
 service as a carrier. 
 
BLANCHE K, BEUCi:. 
 
92 
 
 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 Years passsed by, and the owner of the satchel was a member 
 of the United States Senate, from the great State of Missouri. His 
 name was Lewis V. Bogy (pronounced Bozhee, with accent on 
 the second syllable). While Mr. Bogy was a senator, Mr. Bruce 
 was made a member of the senate from Mississippi. The Missouri 
 senator had a bill pending which was of local importance. He 
 went to Mr. Bruce, explained its importance, and solicited his 
 vote. The colored man promptly responded that he would vote 
 for the bill. He then proceeded : 
 
 " Senator Bogy, do yc^i remember a little ragged negro that 
 carried your carpet-bag to a steamboat, years ago, at the St. Louis 
 levee and only received a few divine curses for his service ? " 
 
 " Yes; " said Mr. Bogy, " what of it? " 
 
 " Why, I am that contemptible little nigger," said Senator 
 Bruce, " and you owe me for that service yet. Of course I will 
 vote for your bill." 
 
 Senator Bogy hastily made a computation of the value of that 
 service with compound interest and tendered payment, which was 
 promptly refused. The twain, however, repaired to the senate 
 restaurant and " smiled." Bogy and Bruce remained firm friends 
 until the death of the former. 
 
 After the war of negro independence Mr. Bruce entered 
 Oberlin College, and took an elective course. Llis association with 
 young gentlemen of general intelligence awakened a dormant 
 thirst for knowledge and the practical application of scholarly 
 information . 
 
 He migrated to Mississippi after the war and began life as a 
 planter, believing that to be his vocation in life,. In 1868 he took 
 an active part in political affairs. Two years later he was sergeant- 
 at-arms of the Mississippi Senate, and while in that capacity was 
 thrown in active contact with the best men of the state. He filled 
 the office of assessor for his county, and was subsequently made 
 sheriff. Then he was chosen a member of the Board of Levee Com- 
 missioners for the Mississippi river. 
 
 In 1874, Mr. Bruce was made a senator of the United States 
 from Mississippi. He served a full term. During his senatorial 
 career he was the friend of Roscoe Conkling, who conducted him 
 to the bar of the Senate when he was first sworn into office. He 
 was made Register of the Treasury under the regime of Mr. Garfield 
 and is to-day doing a pension business in Washington. Blanche 
 K. Bruce is a big man every way. 
 
THE COLOEED 3IINISTRY. 
 
 In presenting a few sketches of the success in life that has at- 
 tended former slaves, after being released from bondage, it is ap- 
 propriate that honorable mention should be made of men who have 
 devouth" stepped into the sacred desk and labored with zeal and 
 efficiency for the benefit, temporal and eternal, of their fellow-men. 
 In doing so it is fair to say the writer thinks there must be intense 
 disgust in the minds of honorable people at the expression of 
 Booker T. "Washington, a colored man, holding the honorable 
 position of president of the Tuskegee Xormal School, in a commu- 
 nication which he furnished to the Christian Union. After stating 
 that three-fourths of the Baptist ministers and two-thirds of the 
 Methodist " are unfit, either mentalh' or morally or both, to preach 
 the Gospel to anj^one or to lead anyone," the honorable professor 
 subsides into flippancy and saj^s: 
 
 The character of many of these preachers can be judged by one. of 
 whom it was said that while he was at work in a cotton field, in the middle 
 of July, he suddenh^ stopped, looked upward and said : " Oh, Lord, de work 
 is so hard, de cotton is so grassy, an' de sun am so hot — I belive dis darkey 
 am called to preach." AVith few exceptions the preaching of the colored 
 ministry is emotional in the highest degree, and the minister considers 
 himself successful in proportion as he is able to set the people in all parts 
 of the congTegation to groaning, uttering wild screams, and jumping, and 
 finally going into a trance. One of the principal ends sought by most of 
 these ministers is their salary, and to this everything else is made sub- 
 servient. 
 
 It msij be feared that man}' white ministers, highly educated 
 and very devoted to the work of human salvation, have an eye to 
 their salaries as the chief end of man; and they make ever^^thing 
 else subservient to a X3a3'ment into the treasur}' of the Lord, for the 
 behoof of the educated ministry', of a sum of money that will make 
 them independent when they grow old and are " retired'' by the 
 prder of the congress of the church. Very few — ah, how few — of 
 the educated white divines of the day surrender a fat living to go 
 into the wilderness and preach for a bare subsistence! The number 
 jf men who have done this thing, under the call of Jehovah, are 
 iicarcer than hen's teeth, of m^^thical anatom}'. Ye proud diviaes, 
 who condemn the service of colored ministers, are no better than 
 they. Everyone of 3'ou work for pay, and you would be driving 
 wagons, in all probability, in case jouv churches should sit down 
 upon 3' our ministration. There is not, in all the L^nited States, a 
 more devout set of churchmen than the colored miaisters of the 
 
94 
 
 VAtTGHAN^S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 South, who preach the Gospel to men of their color as best they 
 know how, for a bare subsistence. They follow the calling of the 
 Master, in spirit and in truth. The highest realm of the churches 
 would be glad to welcome them in the pulpit, except for their 
 color! 
 
 History does not tell us the color of the humble fishermen , call- 
 ed in the name of Jesus, when he planned the way of universal salva- 
 tion . It is scarcely probable that any of them were of the classes 
 from whence the nations of the north spread over the barren soil 
 of Europe, and finally adventured to America, perhaps before the 
 discoveries of Columbus. The followers of the meek and lowly 
 Savior belonged to the southern climes of Europe and Asia. They 
 were of the classes of men to whom Christ gave the edict Go 
 ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." 
 When he sent them forth he gave them a line of service which the 
 white men of to-day have failed to follow. He said: " Provide 
 neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purses. Nor scrip for 
 3^our journey, neither two coats, neither shoes nor yet staves; for 
 the workman is worthy of his meat." 
 
 If the churchmen of to-day were required, at final judgment, 
 to conform to the edict of the Great Master, it is to be feared that 
 the bottomless pit would be inhabited by whites and blacks in pro- 
 portion to their numerical order, without reference to their means 
 of education . Educational lines would be a reproach to the white 
 race. Then the golden rule might be amended to read: " Do unto 
 others as ye have done unto them." 
 
 REV. HARVEY JOHNSON. 
 
 In Fauquier county, Virginia, August 4, 1843, Harvey 
 Johnson entered upon existence, the son of slave parents. He 
 happened to belong to a class of people willing to accord to their 
 servants an exercise of religious freedom, even though they were 
 unable to enjoy personal freedom. He remained in slavery until 
 the days of the war, and when federal troops took possession of 
 the surroundings of Washington, Mr. Johnson found no difficult}- 
 in going within the union lines, where he had the protection of 
 the federal troops. Afterwards he took a course of study at the 
 Way land seminary, in the city of Washington, supported by anti- 
 slavery friends. In 1872 he began to preach, and in the fall of 
 that year he was called to the Union Baptist church at Baltiir ore, 
 Maryland. He occupies the pulpit of that church to-day. He is 
 an educated minister of the gospel, has an interesting family, and 
 
REV, HARViil JOHNSON* 
 
96 
 
 VAUGHAN*S PLEA ^OR THE OLD ^LAVeS. 
 
 he is exerting his utmost efforts to promote the negro race in the 
 social and religious scale. 
 
 Mr. Johnson is in no sense a politician. His professional work 
 occupies his whole time, coupled with a devoted interest in the 
 cause of education. He is doing all that his soul and body can 
 endure to make his people known and honored among men. His 
 logic, his eloquence and his devout spirit, would introduce life 
 into many a white congregation, provided he could spread a 
 mask over his facial anatomy and pose before the people as a fair 
 skinned person. Verily, the face of the Lord in eclipse is antago- 
 nistic to the accomplishment of the salvation of souls. The loyal 
 white element is not disposed to trend unto salva' icn by the side 
 of the negro who has faith in God. 
 
 rev. professor holmes. 
 
 In contradistinction to most of the people of the black race, 
 who started in life under adverse circumstances, Prof. Holmes is 
 an example of the fact that many southern masters were just and 
 humane. He is still a young man, comparatively speaking, and 
 will probably be able to do much for the advancement of his race 
 before he ceases his life of labor and devotion to the cause of his 
 people. It has been a favorite theory since the war to represent 
 the Southern people as brutal and inhuman in the treatment of 
 their slaves, but Prof. Holmes is a living example of the fact that 
 many educated men of the African race will voluntarily stand up 
 and testify to the contrary. 
 
 William E. Holmes was born at Augusta, Georgia, January 
 22, 1856. He was a slave. His father belonged to one master 
 and his mother to another. They lived for a while on adjacent 
 plantations and were not forbidden family privileges. Their 
 association was harmonious, and their social relations were not 
 disturbed until the mother of Holmes was hired abroad to a con- 
 tracting carpenter, a man of generous feelings and impulses, who 
 gave her large personal liberty. The carpenter took a liking to 
 the son of his hired employe and made him a favorite. He went 
 with his master in all his travels, and had a bed in the family 
 mansion as well as a place at the family table. Still the master was 
 not in favor of the abolition of involuntary slavery. 
 
 Mr. Holmes had the advantage of books and papers, and at 
 an early age became a fair scholar. Aftei» the close of the war the 
 devoted mother gave her son the advantage of good instruc- 
 tion from 1865 to 1871. He became a proficient scholar. 
 
VArGHAX S PLEA tOR THE OLD StAVES. 
 
 97 
 
 Having united with the Baptist church, Mr. Holmes renewed 
 his studies at the Augusta Institute and the Atlanta Seminary, 
 where he graduated in 1881. He had already been ordained to 
 preach, but he continued his studies at Yale University for two 
 years, making a specialty' of the stud}' of the Hebrew language. 
 He was made corresponding secretary of the Missionary Baptist 
 convention of Georgia in May, 1883, and since that date he has 
 wrought earnestly for the upbuilding of his church and his race in 
 the South. He is recognized as a ripe scholar, a deep thinker, and 
 his lectures have received a wide admiration. 
 
 Prof. Holmes is a trul}' pious man, a scholar and a worker. 
 He does not make his labor a specialty for his race, but takes in 
 his line of stud}' and assistance all the men of the world. His 
 heart is as big as the universe though his color is black. May 
 God give to the world many men like Prof. Holmes. 
 
 REV. R. B. VAXDERVALL. 
 
 This gentleman first saw the light of day near Lesley's Bend, 
 on the Tennessee river, about ten miles above the city of Nash- 
 ville. His father was a Virginia slave, owned by a man named 
 Carroll Foster. His mother was a slave woman, the property of 
 one Major Hall, who emigrated from Virginia to Tennessee and 
 settled about ten miles above the city of Nashville. The Rev. Dr. 
 Vandervall is now about 59 years old. 
 
 When seven years old the little boy Vandervall was hired out 
 at public sale, on New Year's day, pursuant to a statute then pre- 
 vailing in Tennessee. He had never lived in a white family, and 
 when an old man came to him saying, "Come with me," the boy 
 was badly frightened. He was snatched from his mother's arms, 
 placed on a horse bare-back and made to ride twenty-two miles 
 across the country. He was thus ruthlessly cut loose from all the 
 dear ties of earth . 
 
 In his new abode the poor boy, who had neither home nor 
 name, was made to sleep at night rolled up in a piece of rag car- 
 pet, where he cried himself to sleep night after night. In time he 
 became accommodated to his situaiion. He slept in the house with 
 the white family, and repeated the prayer nightly taught by his 
 slave mother. He enjoyed one privilege — he was allowed to at- 
 tend school. 
 
 When ten years old the poor boy was taken to Nashville, where 
 he was hired to a minister of the gospel named Garrett. While re- 
 siding there the estate of his old master, who had died, was par- 
 
REV. R. B. VANDERYALL, 
 
 i 
 
YAUGHAN*S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 9^ 
 
 titioned. He was purchased by Mr. Yandervall, whose name he 
 continues to bear. 
 
 John Yandervall, the son of the master, took a liking to the 
 lad and continued the instruction that had been begun by Mr. Gar- 
 rett. He had a religious turn of mind and attended weekl}^ pra^^er 
 meetings, where he praj^ed and began to exhort. He took a wife 
 and began to work on a railroad , so that he might pass a part of 
 his time with his companion in the journey of life, but his master 
 found that he could read and write, and feared his intelligence. 
 He threatened to sell him south. The consequence was the young 
 man ran away. He afterwards returned home and was hired to a 
 man at Nashville on his own terms, paying his master $200 a year 
 for the privilege. 
 
 About this time Mr. Yandervall had a queer dream. He 
 thought he was sold to a cotton planter, and, fearing that the 
 dream would come to a realit}^, he made a proposition to his mas- 
 ter for his own purchase. The olfer was accepted, and he paid a 
 stipulated sum every year. When he had paid $500 his master 
 made a bargain to sell him into Texas. He ran away a second 
 time. 
 
 This time friends intervened and the money for his purchase 
 was paid. He took the advantage of his freedom, educated him- 
 self and began to preach. He afterward undertook the purchase 
 of his wife, and had made the last annual payment for her liberty 
 when the civil war broke put, which would have given her 
 freedom . 
 
 Perhaps the most remarkable instance of delivery from servi- 
 tude is to be found in the case of Dr. Yandervall, After the war 
 he settled in East Tennessee and took a livel}^ interest in the educa- 
 tion of his race. He continued his own culture and has taken 
 high rank in the institutions of the South for the education of the 
 colored race. He has earned and received several educational de- 
 grees. Mr. Yandervall has two sons who are ripe scholars. 
 
 The case of this noble gentleman of color affords a notable in- 
 stance of success under difficulties. If ever a pension was deserved 
 it is in his case. He is to-day modestly pursuing the avocation 
 of a cultured Christian minister . 
 
 JOHN R. LYNCH. 
 
 The history of the negro race abounds with cultured orators 
 whose electricity has astonished the world. Among those who 
 have established a name and a fame within the United States, no 
 man is entitled to prominence above that of John R. Lynch. 
 
100 
 
 VAtTGHAN's PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES* 
 
 The South has produced a colored citizen, in the person of Mr. 
 Lynch , who has maintained his manhood , to the honor of his race 
 and his own place in history . 
 
 John R. Lynch was born in Concordia parish, Louisiana, Sep- 
 tember 10, 1847. He was a slave and continued in the life of a 
 slave until he was freed by the acts of emancipation. He had no 
 education in early life, and emerged from the reign of despotism 
 in utter ignorance of the qualities God had given him . But the 
 light cannot be hidden completely, even when it is under a bushel 
 measure. In the face of his training as a field hand, Mr. Lynch 
 has risen to eminence, and is to-day recognized as a power within 
 the land. 
 
 When the union troops took possession of the city of Natchez, 
 his mother, who had saved some means, gave her son the benefit 
 of private instruction. He made himself acquainted with the 
 written history of ancient and modern times. His first venture 
 in business was in photography. While operating a gallery in 
 Natchez Gov. Ames appointed him a justice of the peace at 
 Natchez. In the fall of 1869 he was elected to the legislature of 
 Mississippi. He was re-elected in 1871, and was made speaker of 
 the house of representatives near the close of the session. From 
 the state legislature he was made a member of Congress, and 
 served in the Forty-third and Forty-fourth Congresses. He was 
 again elected, fairly , to the Forty-seventh Congress, and contested 
 the seat of the despicable General Chalmers, of infamous Fort 
 Pillow memory. 
 
 While awaiting a report of his case on the part of the house 
 committee on privileges and elections for the Forty-seventh con- 
 gress, Mr. Lynch was one day found walking along Pennsylvania 
 avenue, of the city of Washington, by a gentleman who had 
 frequently observed his familiar figure. He was hailed and this 
 question asked of him: 
 
 ''Can you tell me, my man, where I can find a competent 
 carriage driver ? I prefer a colored man." 
 
 Mr. Lynch said he was not aware of any person needing such 
 employment, but there were doubtless many such, and he promised 
 to make inquiry, at the same time making a note of the gentle- 
 man's name and address. 
 
 "You seem to be pretty well informed as to the localities of 
 Washington and Georgetown, as I often see you moving around. 
 Why cannot I employ you ? Evidently you are out of a job. 
 What are you doing anyhow ? ' ' 
 
vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 101 
 
 " You are right in saying I am out of a job just now," was 
 the reply of Mr. Lynch, "but I hope to have one pretty soon. I 
 am contesting the seat of Gen. Chalmers in congress and think I 
 am very liable to get it." 
 
 The inquirer looked at the negro in a surprised manner, and 
 then remarked: "I supposed I was talking to a 'nigger' and not 
 to a statesman. Times seem to have changed. Good day." 
 
 He walked off with a bug in his ear. 
 
 When the national republican convention met in Chicago in 
 1884, Mr. Lynch was made temporary chairman of that body, 
 beating Powell Cla^^ton, ex-senator from Arkansas, for the honor. 
 He is the only negro who ever presided over a national conven- 
 tion of any party within the United States. His knowledge of 
 parliamentary law, acquired while speaker of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives of Mississippi, stood him in good place. He ruled 
 decorousl}^, wisety and acceptably. 
 
 Mr. Lynch is married to a southern colored lad}^, and manages 
 a plantation in the vicinity of ISatchez with credit and profit to 
 himself and family. He is moving quietlj'' in private life, but is 
 likely to resume political life at any momojit. He is respected 
 and honored by all who know him, whites and blacks alike. 
 
 JOHN M. LANGSTON. 
 
 There lives to-day at Petersburg, Va., a gentleman of distinc- 
 tion, though of negro blood, who deserves the high regard of his 
 countrymen who admire true greatness whether clothed in a white 
 or black skin. John M. Langston was born in Louisa county, 
 Virofinia, December 14, 1829. He bears in his veins the blood of 
 three races of men — the negro, the Indian and the Anglo-Saxon; 
 but his mother was a slave and in pursuance of the edict of the 
 law made by white men he was born in slavery, although his 
 father was his master. He bears the name of his father and dif- 
 fers from many of his fellow slaves of other days in this — that he 
 was not emancipated l\y circumstances growing out of .the war of 
 the rebellion, but was made free b}^ the last will and testament of 
 his master, and that instrument made provision for his education. 
 He does not, perhaps, fall within the classes designed to be sup- 
 plied with a pension under the Vaughan ex-slave pension bill, but 
 he presents such an illustrious instance of great ability and force 
 of character, and as one of the men who have been ranked as 
 negroes , that it is meet and proper that he should receive an honor- 
 able mention among the noble men who have sought to raise the 
 
102 
 
 VAUGHAN S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 black race to a position of deserved respect and prominence. On 
 his mother's side Mr. Langston lays claim to the distinction of 
 having descended from Pocahontas — a distinction that he divides 
 with many high-born Virginia families. 
 
 Made free by virtue of his father's will, John M. Langston 
 was sent in early life to Ohio with a view of receiving proper 
 instruction. He was received as a student at Oberlin College in 
 1844 and graduated from that university in 1849. He was thus 
 launched upon the sea of life a free man of liberal education fully 
 thirteen years before Abraham Lincoln issued his first proclama- 
 tion of emancipation. After his graduation at Oberlin Mr. 
 Langston made application for admission to a law school at Ballston 
 Spa, near Saratoga, managed by Prof. J. W. Fowler. He was 
 denied admission on account of his color! Liasmuch as his facial 
 appearance and other prominent features did not mark his origin , 
 he was advised by friends to claim that he was a Spaniard, hailing 
 from the West Indies or South America, so that he might secure 
 matriculation in the law school. But his better judgment rebelled 
 against any attempt at deception. Mr. Langston turned away 
 from Ballston with a sad heart in order that he might try his for- 
 tunes elsewhere. He met with another rebuff at the Cincinnati 
 law school, and then concluded to read law in the office of some 
 private instructor. But in this field of learning he met with 
 scarcely better success. 
 
 After repeated failure to secure a student's place in a private 
 law office, Mr. Langston obtained the loan of some elementary 
 works from the library of Hon. Sherlock J. Andrews, of Cleve- 
 land, and began a system of self-instruction, receiving occasional 
 suggestions from and making recitations to his preceptor. But 
 this method of instruction was so unsatisfactory and was attended 
 with so niany difficulties that Mr. Langston finally concluded to 
 abandon the law. He returned to his old a^ma maier at Oberlin 
 and took a theological course, graduating in that department in 
 1853. But his heart was set upon a legal education-; and he finally 
 effected an arrangement whereby he entered the law office of Hon. 
 Philemon Bliss, at Elyria, Ohio, where he devoted himself to the 
 study of law with singular assiduity. In the course of twelve 
 months Mr. Langston made application for admission to practice 
 in the local courts. The presiding judge selected a committee for 
 his examination consisting of one whig and two democratic at- 
 torneys. The committee was sensibly impressed with Mr. Lang- 
 ston 's profound and varied learning, his elementary knowledge of 
 
VAUGHAX'S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 108 
 
 the law being perfect and his general knowledge equal to that of 
 a belles-lettres scholar. His admittance to the bar was recom- 
 mended, but here the color line was struck to his discomfiture, the 
 question of the right of a court to give a certificate to a n^gro 
 having been raised. A-jout this time, however, the supreme court 
 of Ohio decided, in an election contest, the term "negro or mu- 
 latto" in the state constitution meant a preponderance of white 
 or black blood. In the case of Mr. Langston it was readily shown 
 that the preponderance of blood in his veins was white , and there- 
 upon the local court made an order that he be sworn as an at- 
 torney. He was admitted to the bar October 24, 1854. It is 
 doubtful whether any learned lawyer ever had greater difficulties 
 in securing admission to practice before the civil courts than those 
 which environed Mr. Langston in the early part of his career. 
 
 After his admission to the bar, Mr. Langston settled at Brown- 
 helm, Lorain count}^, Ohio, upon a farm, but within a brief time 
 was associated with Mr . Hamilton Perr}'' , a profound lawyer , in the 
 trial of a cause involving the title to lands. There were no colored 
 people in the vicinit}^. Tlie court, jurors, witnesses and other at- 
 torne^^s in the case w^ere white men. Mr. Perry purposely en- 
 trusted the management of the cause to his associate, reserving to 
 himself only the place of a consulting counsel. The trial of a case 
 by a negro lawj'er excited widespread local comment and the court 
 was filled w'ith spectators. The result of the trial was a sw^eeping 
 victory for John M. Langston. Thereafter his fortune was made. 
 Business flowed in upon him, and he had a larger practice than he 
 was able to accommodate. 
 
 Mr. Langston 's first appearance as an orator in the political 
 field occurred in 1865. His reputation as a law^yer had been so 
 great that he w^as invited to attend and address the May meeting of 
 the American Anti-Slavery Society, in that year, at the City of New 
 York. His address was cultured and his eloquence magnetic. At 
 the age of 36 years he found himself with a national reputation, 
 and his name associated with that aggressive line of heroes w^hose 
 mission was the destruction of African slavery within the United 
 States. 
 
 For several years Mr. Langston was intimately connected with 
 the cause of education in the State of Ohio, and gave special atten- 
 tion to the organization of schools for the education of the colored 
 youth of that great state. He held the office of a school visitor by 
 appointment, and he traversed from the lakes to the Ohio river, 
 organizing schools wherever they w^ere required and secured for 
 
104 VAUGHAIf's PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 them a supply of teachers . He was engaged in this work when the 
 war broke out in 1861. He immediately added to his efforts the 
 patriotic woi'k of encouraging enlistments for service in the field. 
 He was instrumental in recruiting the 54th and 55th regiments of 
 Ohio infantry, and after the enlistment of colored troops was per- 
 mitted he recruited the 5tii colored regiment, to which he presented 
 a stand of colors. He visited Washington and asked of Secretary 
 Stanton the privilege of recruiting a colored regiment to be of- 
 ficered by colored men. His project was endorsed and supported 
 by the late James A. Garfield, but was not decided in time to en- 
 able him to participate personally in the acts of the war. After 
 the war had concluded, in 1867, President Johnson appointed Mr. 
 Langston minister to Hayti, but he did not accept the oflfice. The 
 same year, on motion of Mr. Garfield, he was admitted to practice 
 law before the Supreme Court of the United States. He was at 
 that time actively engaged in the organization of freedmen's 
 schools under the appointment and instruction of General O. O. 
 Howard, and he deemed the work of such importance that he would 
 not leave it to s:o abroad. In this field of labor he continued until 
 1869, when was called to the professorship of law in the Howard 
 University. He was made dean of the department and gave seven 
 of the best years of his life to the up-building of that institu- 
 tion. The college has graduated many able law students, white 
 and colored, male and female. During two years of his connection 
 with the college he was its vice-president and president. The 
 degree of L.L. D. was conferred upon him, marked by an impressive 
 address from Gen. Howard. 
 
 During the administration of President Grant, it was his pleas- 
 ure to name Mr. Langston as a member of the board of health of 
 the District of Columbia, and he served six years or more, as the 
 attorney of the board, and a part of the time as its secretary. In 
 1877 President Hayes appointed him minister resident, and consul 
 general to Hayti, about ten years after he had declined a similar 
 position under Andrew Johnson. This time he accepted and for 
 about eight years did excellent and valuable service in his diplo- 
 matic relations. He was very popular at the Haytien Court, and 
 stood high with the representatives of all governments represented 
 in that republic. 
 
 In January, 1885, Mr. Langston resigned his foreign appoint- 
 ment and returned home the following summer, intending to 
 resume the practi-ce of his profession. He found, however, that he 
 had been chosen, by the board of education of Virginia, president 
 
YAUGHAX'S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 105 
 
 of the Virginia Normal School and Collegiate Institute, and a 
 large annual appropriation was made for the maintenance of the 
 institution. His success in managing this great universit}^ has been 
 phenomenal, and has called forth the highest euconiums of those 
 associated with him, and of the state officers of Yirgmia. 
 
 In 1888 Mr. Langston was induced, much against his will, to 
 accept a nomination for congress in the Petersburg district and 
 would have unquestionably have been elected b}^ a large majority 
 but for the antipathy of the friends of Gen. Mahone, who induced 
 Mr. R. AT. Arnold to run as an independent republican candidate 
 against him. According to the official returns Mr. E.G. Tenable 
 (dem.) received 13,299 votes in the district ; Mr. John M. Lang- 
 ston (regular rep.) received 12,657 votes, and Mr. R. AT. Arnold 
 (ind. rep.) received 3,207 votes. For reasons not necessarj^ here 
 to state, Mr. Langston contested the seat of Mr. Tenable, and the 
 contest was decided in Mr. Langston 's favor September 28, 1890. 
 It is understood that Mr. Langston 's contest was impeded by the 
 active opposition of Gen. Mahone and his friends. 
 
 Among the men who have risen from the cradle of slavery to 
 eminence none stand higher than Mr. Langston. He is a noble 
 product of our free and liberal institutions. There is a brilliant 
 life yet awaiting him. 
 
 COXCLUSIOX OF SKETCHES. 
 
 It would be impracticable, in the space allotted to a volume 
 like the one in hand, to include even a brief sketch of the many 
 distinguished descendants of African parents, who have been born 
 in slavery but who have carved for themselves an enduring repu- 
 tation in subsequent lives of honor and successful struggle 
 against the untoward circumstances of their birth. It would be a 
 pleasure to narrate the achievements of such a man as the Rev. 
 W.J. Simmons, who distinguished himself as a Christian minister 
 and a man of letters. While discharging the duties of the presi- 
 dency of the State L'niversity at Louisville, K}^., Dr. Simmons 
 wrote and published a volume entitled ''Men of Mark : Eminent. 
 Progressive and Rising," which is almost invaluable as a delinea- 
 tion of those negro men of ability who have honored their race in 
 ever}^ department of life. There have been very many others who 
 have emerged from the barbarism of slaver}^, and through trials 
 and dangers, equal to the sufferings of the children of Israel dur- 
 ing their forty years of wanderings in desert and wilderness, they 
 have come forth at last to benefit the human race. It may seem 
 unfair to omit honorable mention of any of them , put the purpose 
 
106 VAUGHAN*S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 in view is not to praise, but to make a plea for justice, long de- 
 layed, and in doing so to satisfy the general reader that the sons 
 of slavery have earned a recognition in the lives and services 
 of those of their number who have been able to outgrow the con- 
 ditions surrounding their birth, and to become useful to the world 
 in their day and generation. 
 
 Perhaps it may be said that the writer of these pages has 
 singled out a few illustrious examples, and that comparatively few 
 negroes could, under any circumstances, cope with Dr. Simmons, 
 Frederick Douglass, John M. Langston, John R. Lynch, Robert 
 B. Elliott, Robert Smalls, Samuel R. Lowery, John Wesley Terry 
 and others, some of whom have been biographically sketched in 
 these pages, while it has not been convenient to make creditable 
 mention of all of them . Such , indeed , may be the fact . It would 
 possibly be right to go one step farther , and to say that even the 
 advantages of learning and fortune would not fit all negroes to 
 rank with the men whose names have been mentioned. But be- 
 cause all of the dusky race cannot rise to eminence in the learned 
 professions, in skilled trades or in the strife of arms, it does not 
 follow that a great nation should refuse to those of the race a 
 proper recognition for their lives of toil who have been held in 
 bondage for years, and even for generations, and who have finally 
 been turned loose by that nation to starve and die without any re- 
 sources whatever. 
 
 Those captious critics who would suffer the ex-slaves to look 
 upon their freedom from involuntary servitude as a full and com- 
 plete recompense for their former years of captivity, because all 
 of them have not shown their capacity to become statesmen and 
 scholars, are reminded that comparatively few white men, though 
 free from birth, have been able to claim a rank with Washington, 
 Jefferson, Madison, Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Irving, Bryant, 
 Longfellow, Bancroft, Whittier and hundreds more, living and 
 dead, who have given renown to our country in statesmanship, 
 literature, science and arms. Yet courts, congress and legislatures 
 have always been ready to award a full measure of damages to 
 white men who have suffered wrong in any way at the hands of 
 the nation, the states or the people. Only in the case of the negro 
 do we find an indisposition to right a wrong that has followed the 
 sad fortunes of that race from the time when their forefathers 
 were dragged unwilling captives to American soil and loaded down 
 with the galling chains of slavery. The error is as old as the gov- 
 ernment — yea, older than that — it began with the discovery of the 
 
VAUGHAN S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 107 
 
 western hemisphere and has continued unto the present day, in 
 spite of the work of emancipation which bade the black man lift up 
 his head and snuff the air of liberty as the natural right of man . 
 But liberty without compensation for the long era of slavish toil 
 is but a mockery of justice. 
 
 In how many instances has the book of time recorded the fact 
 that some poor mortal has been made the victim of a chain of cir- 
 cumstances which dragged him from his home to become the inmate 
 of a prison cell ? In the lapse of time his innocence was established. 
 The state made haste to unbar the prison doors and set the victim 
 free. In all such cases a reparation for the wrong of imprisonment 
 has been made from the public treasury. And the money value, 
 fixed as a recompense for the years of anguish, torture and im- 
 prisonment, has been gauged by a liberal if not a lavish hand. It 
 was due to the victim of the law's mistake, that. he should be treat- 
 ed with a generosity commensurate with the injustice he suffered 
 on the part of the state when it laid its hand upon him in error 
 and branded him as a felon stained with crime . 
 
 If the state stands ready to offer liberal remuneration to the 
 citizen who has suffered a term of imprisonment in obedience to an 
 error of a court of justice, how much the more ready should a 
 great government always be to repair its error in holding a count- 
 less class of its subjects in the horrors of vassalage during genera- 
 tion after generation of mankind ? In the one case the prisoner 
 was suspected of a crime which subsequent events domonstrated he 
 did not commit. In the other case there was not even an unjust 
 suspicion of wrong-doing upon which the torture of captivity could 
 be exercised. The misfortune of caste alone served the purpose 
 of burning the brand of slavery upon the backs of mj'riads of 
 human beings. Might was law and right was. not recognized. 
 The toil, the sweat, the groans, the tears, and even the blessings 
 of years of human slavery, stand up in a line together and appeal 
 to the congress of the United States to be just to the injured men 
 and women of the negro race Avho have borne the heat and burden 
 of the era of slavery, and who have lost home and fireside ia 
 answer to a praj^er for human freedom ! 
 
 Incidental to the advancement made by former subjects of 
 slavery, since the acquirement of their freedom, it may be stated 
 that the free people of color within the United States have presented 
 some notable examples of eminence in various departments of 
 life ; and the success of such persons has unquestionably wrought 
 a wholesome influence upon the brightest of the negroes who 
 
108 
 
 V^AUGHAN^S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 emerged from slavery. Animated by the knowledge that persons 
 of their own color had acquired property, in a measure that gave 
 them prominence and respectability, the freedmen who were 
 ambitious of making the most of their new condition, made haste 
 to secure education and then to apply that education in a practical 
 and beneficent manner. Of course the plea for a pension to be 
 granted to the freedmen of the former slave states does not apply 
 to those persons of color who have been free from their birth. 
 But no class of men will rejoice more heartily than negroes who 
 have never been slaves to see ample justice done to their fellow 
 men who have endured the distress of slavery in former days. In 
 the days of the great civil war, when the first gleam of the sunlight 
 of liberty seemed about to pierce the black cloud of bondage, all 
 over the North and in many parts of the South, the first rays of 
 political independence were watched for eagerly and welcomed with 
 glad alacrity by no association of men with the same solicitude 
 that characterized the free men of color. While universal freedom 
 would add nothing to their well-being, except to extend their lines 
 of usefulness and to enable them to enter upon a larger arena in 
 the pursuit of commercial and business avocations, they had that 
 natural love and affection for the people of their race that their 
 hearts swelled with feelings of gratitude, patriotism and true 
 christian devotion at the prospect of personal liberty throughout 
 the land to all the inhabitants thereof. And when at last the edict 
 went forth which surrendered the shackles of nearly six millions 
 of human beings into the giant grasp of Abraham Lincoln, the 
 anthem of praise and the voice of thanksgiving swelled up from 
 the hearts of the free men of color in every part of the land with 
 an enthusiasm that bespoke them a happy people, devoutly thank- 
 ful to Almighty God for the boundless favor of freedom to all 
 mankind without regard to race, color or previous condition of 
 bondage . 
 
 That the goodly example of the best element of the original 
 free negro population has had much to do in the amelioration of 
 the condition of the ex-slaves there can be no manner of doubt or 
 question. The history of the United States abounds with the 
 glorious work of such noble men of the African race as Rev. W. B. 
 Derrick, D. D., Rev. James A. D. Pond (deceased), Rev. Theodore 
 Doughty Miller, D.D., Rev. Henry W. Chandler, and many other 
 christian ministers of the gospel; J. D. Baltimore who had a high 
 reputation as a mechanical engineer ; and a musical composer of the 
 ability of Henry F. Williams; such distinguished lawyers as Jamos 
 
VArCxHAX'? PLEA FOE THE OLD SLATES. 
 
 109 
 
 C. Matthews, who was Mr. CleTeland's register of deeds at TTash- 
 fngton, Alexander Clark. Prof. T. McC. Stewart, and a score of 
 ethers of the same profession, dozens of distinguished physicians, 
 and hosts of the ablest teachers in the land. In proportion to 
 their number it may be seriously Cjuestioued whether there can be 
 found within the conhnes of tiiis great American union of states a 
 more talented body of men than the professional and scientific 
 eitizens of color who were free from their childhood. In the race 
 of progress they have kept even with the rapid advance of civili- 
 zation, and during the last quarter of a century they have stimu- 
 lated manhood, education and social eminence among their bretiiren 
 released from the thraldom of slavery. AVhiie no^ beneticiaries 
 themselves of the proposed act for the pensiuu oi freedmen it is 
 very certain that the ex-slaves will not rejoice more heartily than 
 the free men of color over the passage of sucli a just and righteous 
 statute. 
 
 It may be safely assumed that the more the proposition shall be 
 discussed, to extend a just and equitable system of pensions to the 
 persons who were restrained of their natural liberty during a 
 large portion of their lives, the greater favor it will find with all 
 rational and thinking men. It has been very justly remarked in 
 moral philosophy that there is no excellence without great 
 labor." It may also be said that no reform was ever proposed in 
 government without encountering the severest criticism and oppo- 
 sition of ignorance, as well as of that class of capitalists who berate 
 any act of justice which is likely to call fur an assessment for taxa- 
 tion upon their stores of wealth. It is to be expected that the 
 proposition to pension ex-slaves of thi- Republic wiil call forth 
 bitter opposition, intense efforts at ridicule and sarCiism. and in 
 many instances the most disgusting ribaldry and even obscenity. 
 In truth the work of misrepresentation and detraction ha3 actually 
 begun . 
 
 Such newspapers as the Chicago Herald, the Xashville Araeri- 
 can. ami the Cleveland Lead'^r AiixxQ opened thfir liatteries already, 
 and while the style of objection is different in the several prints, 
 the objective point is the same in every case — the vast expense to 
 the tax-payers attendant upon the passage of an ex-slave pension 
 law. In some instances it has been asserted that it will entail upon 
 the federal treasury a tax of two hundred billion dollars within 
 the next thirty years I Could anything be more ridiculous ? TThy. 
 estimating the number (jf slav es emancipated from 'bondage at five 
 millinns. and if all of thfUi we^v alive to-day. and the government 
 
110' 
 
 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 should pay into their hands a thousand dollars apiece, the total 
 sum of the payment would only be five billion dollars, or One-for- 
 tieth of the sum it has been gravely stated the passage of the pro- 
 posed pension law will entail upon the government in thirty years 
 time ! As a fact, it msij be said, the whole amount this pension 
 act may call for will not amount to a tenth part of five billions. 
 
 But it is not the purpose of the writer to enter into an argu- 
 ment with the phantasy of a diseased or deluded brain. An appeal 
 to logic and facts will be maintained in the face of derision. The 
 enormous expense account attendant upon the passage of a just 
 measure is not likely' to frighten any person who desires to see the 
 integrity of this great nation maintained in purit}^ and reality. 
 Had the people of the several states stopped to figure in 1861, 
 when the shore batteries at Charleston were opened upon Fort 
 Sumter, and had their cupidity exceeded their patriotism, it is 
 probable there never would have been another shot fired after 
 Major Robert Anderson and his gallant little band had made their 
 surrender. But the expense attached to the maintenance of the 
 war was not taken into account. Neither were the people appalled 
 at a contemplation of the rivers of blood that must flow, the homes 
 that must be made desolate, the dreary waste that must follow in 
 the wake of contending armies, nor the millions that would 
 be expended, year after year, for the pensions of union sol- 
 diers and their dependent families. After the lapse of nearly 
 thirty years it is now found that the pension roll is many millions 
 greater than it was when the angel of peace spread its wings over 
 the land and put an estoppel upon the effusion of blood. ^ 
 
 The questions to be decided are these : Was the act of emanci- 
 pation right ? Did the emancipation turn millions of slaves from 
 homes of comfort into a condition of penury and want ? Has the 
 freedom of the negro entailed poverty upon the aged and helpless 
 and made many of them the inmates of alms-houses and the sub- 
 jects of public charity ? If so, what is the plain duty of a great 
 government to the helpless creatures whom it once rated as chattel 
 property and compelled the taxation of their bodies for the support 
 of the state ? 
 
 These questions will have to be answered in the calmness of 
 reason and not in the ribaldry of a cruel jest. Once presented 
 fairly to the sober second thought of a justice-loving people, and 
 the voice of humanity will speak to the hearts of the people, bid- 
 ding them to do right at every hazard . 
 
VAUGHAX'S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLATES. 
 
 Ill 
 
 It has been already said that great reforms move slowly. But 
 when they have once begun to move, there is no such thing as 
 staying their onward march. "When James G-. Birne}^ was first 
 made the presidential candidate of the old liberty party in 1840, 
 he received barely more than 7.000 votes in all the United States. 
 He was a candidate again in 1844 and received 62,000 votes. The 
 anti-slaver}^ sentiment had begun to grow. Sixteen 3'ears later it 
 swept the land, carrying down the old political organizations before 
 it. It was persistent discussion that accomplished such a result. 
 So will it be in the matter of righting the wrongs which our nation 
 has suffered to exist, No ridicule, or denunciation, or effort to 
 affright timid capital will be able to call a halt. The work in 
 hand is right, and the right must and will prevail. 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 An open address to the Congressional Committee that nov: has, or 
 that may hereafter have, the Ex-Slave Pension Bill before it for 
 consideration, let me say: 
 
 Gextle3iex of the Committee: — In asking consideration for 
 the rough draft of an act. which I conceive to be just, having in 
 view the pensioning of freedmen who have become old since they 
 acquired their freedom in pursuance of the two proclamations of 
 ex-President Lincoln and of the acts of congress and of the conven- 
 tions of sovereign states whereby an enslaved people were made 
 free. I have to say, that you will find much to be added and a 
 wide range for an interchange of opinions as to the methods that 
 ought to be observed in putting such an important work into 
 successful operation. The principal thought involved is justice 
 towards a once enslaved race, and to afford a people who have been 
 made citizens and participants in the affairs of the government, 
 with the means of competing with their fellow men of other races 
 and better surroundings in the combat of life. As long as these 
 people were regarded as" chattels — the hewers of wood and the 
 drawers of water for those who chanced to be placed above them 
 in the circumstances of life — their physical comfort was looked 
 after by those who received the direct benefit of their manual labor. 
 But in the course of human events these men have been made free, 
 and they have started in the race of life in competition with a race 
 that has never suffered the horrors and injustice of subjugation. 
 It may be apparent to 3'ou, gentlemen, that in such a race the 
 negro suffers an unspeakable disadvantage. To expect that he 
 
Vaughan's plea foe The old slaves. 
 
 would be able to perform well the part assigned to him in his new 
 condition, is giving him credit for a superiority that does not 
 attach to human existence. It was honorable to the government 
 to accord him his freedom at a time when the life of the nation 
 appeared to tremble in the balance, but that he should have made 
 the very best use of freedom for the advancement of his own weal 
 and that of his late fellow slaves was scarcely to have been ex- 
 pected. The wonder is, that he has done as well for himself as 
 we observe him to have accomplished. Perhaps the white race, 
 similarly circumstanced, could not have done more. 
 
 You will admit, gentlemen, that the government did not make 
 the bondmen free from downright good will. It has been a boon 
 accorded to the down-trodden because in the sturdy forms and 
 physical strength of millions of slaves an element was seen that 
 might be made useful in the suppression of a gigantic rebellion. 
 It was manifestly the right and duty of those entrusted with the 
 administration of the government to make use of those means 
 which God and nature had placed within their power. Even Pres- 
 ident Lincoln, at the outset of the rebellion, said that if he could 
 maintain the union by saving the institution of slavery, that he 
 would save it. But he found that the salvation of the union 
 depended largely upon the destruction of that institution, and he 
 struck the blow that surely destroyed it. Since then congress has 
 habilitated the freedmen with the right of franchise, and has opened 
 to him the avenues of preferment. What the Negro lacks is the 
 means placed in his hands that will enable him, and those that 
 come after him, to hold up their heads and take a part in the avo- 
 cations of life that will be honorable and just to an enfranchised 
 race. This, gentlemen, congress can do by the passage of the bill 
 before you into a law, after your wisdom and experience shall have 
 perfected its details, and surrounded it with such safeguards as will 
 make it a prudent law for the colored citizens, while the federal 
 treasury will be sufficiently protected from fraud. 
 
 When the southern slaves were recognized as chattel property, 
 subject to all the fluctuations of an article that possessed a market- 
 able value, they were made the subjects of taxation, and as such 
 contributed their share of revenue to the treasury, in one shape 
 and another, enabling' the government to declare war, conclude 
 peace and to contract alliances. After having been the subject of 
 taxation for the benefit of the government, that government has 
 seen fit to strike the shackles from the limbs of the slave and to 
 convert the chattel into a citizen. As a chattel, surrounded by an 
 
vaughan's plea foe the old slaves. 
 
 113 
 
 implacable bondage, that could encompass no work but the service 
 expected from vassalage, the negro could make no demand upon 
 the government. Havmg been made a citizen without the asking 
 of such a boon , it is the citizen that now arises and asks the gov- 
 ernment of which he is a part, to do b}^ him that degree of justice 
 that will enable him to perform an honorable part in life. Place 
 in his hands the means to rival the white race and then judge him 
 by the fruits of his afterwork. The bill before 3'our committee, 
 gentlemen, will go a long way in the direction of doing fairness 
 and justice. 
 
 But there is another view of this question that is entitled to 
 3"Our candid consideration . Much of the prosperity that has attended 
 northern communities since the conclusion of hostilities between 
 the North and South, growing out of the late civil war, has come 
 about in consequence of the quarterl}" distribution of pension 
 money voted by congress to the surviving union soldiery. That 
 source of prosperit}^ has not extended to the Southern States in a 
 very large degree. Comparatively few Union soldiers were enlisted 
 at the South, and the number who have become residents of that 
 section since the war make up but a light percentage of the general 
 population. The passage of a measure that would place former 
 slaves upon the pension rolls would not only be the performance 
 of a delaj^ed act of justice, to a once enslaved race, but it would 
 occasion an expenditure of treasure throughout the entire southern 
 region that would visibly enhance the material prosperity of all 
 classes of people within that section. So it appears that every 
 consideration of enlarged wisdom and political econom}" calls aloud 
 for the passage of some such law as it is now your province to 
 consider . 
 
 In conclusion, gentlemen, permit me to say that all great and 
 generous nations have been ready and willing to make a valuable 
 recompense for the wrongs they iiave perpetrated towards other 
 nations or to individuals for errors of administration or acts of 
 wrong or oppression. Indemni'y between great states and growing 
 out of a condition of war has been the rale of the world. Our 
 own countr}^ exacted vast tribute from Mexico because of the war 
 that raged in 1846 and 1847. The possession by us of California 
 and the vast territories adjacent came to us in that way. France 
 emptied into the coffers of German}^ a nearl}^ fabulous wealth in 
 the settlement of their last appeal to arms. Great Britain did not 
 hesitate to reimburse the people of this countrv with fifteen mil- 
 lions of money for the ravages committed upon American com.- 
 
114 
 
 vaughan's plea for The old slaves. 
 
 merce during the existence of our civil war. But these things 
 were not a tithe of the error endured for ages by the enslaved 
 people of these states. We have souglit in a measure to remedy 
 that error, but the remedy so far provided only exhibits to public 
 gaze the enormity of the wrong patiently endured, and for which 
 the pending measure provides more complete and ample satisfac- 
 tion. As we measure justice to a wronged race of people so it may 
 be meted to us again should the hour of extremity ever come. 
 
 AN OPEN ADDRESS. 
 
 To the Colored Citizens of the United States horn in slavery and 
 
 liberated hy means of geiieral emancipation: 
 
 Fellow Citizens: — Though not a member of Congress, 
 charged with the enactment of laws for the weal of all citizens of 
 our common country irrespective of race, class or condition, I am, 
 nevertheless, one who has given the subject of your emancipation 
 a candid study and considerable earnest thought, especially with 
 respect to the changes it has entailed upon you and your progeny, 
 and the just obligations which the government has assumed or 
 ought to have assumed in extending to your race the boon of 
 being made freemen. As one of the results of such thought and 
 investigation, I have prepared and had presented in Congress, 
 through the medium of my direct representative, a bill, which, in 
 my estimation, will make substantial progress in conferring upon 
 you the proper benefits of freedom and enable the younger 
 generation to perform well their part in the high field of 
 usefulness, wherein they have been made actors and participants. 
 I am not prepared to say that the bill in question covers all the 
 minutife of a comprehensive and intelligent law, but in general I 
 hope the benefits designed to be conferred are set forth wiLh 
 such precision as to be comprehensible in respect to the intent and 
 purpose of the proposed act. Deficiencies can be readily supplied 
 and errors — if found to exist — ^can easily be remedied. The 
 main object in view will readily appear even to the most casual 
 observer, and I am persuaded that reflection and observation will 
 commend the measure to the approval of the sober second thought 
 of the people . 
 
 The general tenor of the bill presented to Congress and to the 
 people for the first time, comprehends the pensioning b}^ the 
 government of such of the African race as were born in bondage 
 
Vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 115 
 
 and have been made free by the Emancipation Proclamation of 
 Ex-President Lincoln and the la^^s of the United States and of the 
 several states of the Union where slaverj- formerly existed, organic 
 and statutory, which have been passed in pursuance of those 
 proclamations or consistentlj- therewith. In shaping such a law 
 it has appeared just to. me that a bonus in a suitable sum should 
 be given to those older persons who stood the brunt of years of 
 serfdom, and who in the order of nature have not long to remain 
 amongst us in the enjo^^ment of the blessings of freedom. This 
 bonus has been graduated in lesser sums to those recipients who are 
 younger in 3-ears and whose prospect of longer life it appears to 
 be natural to hope for, until a fair monthly stipend is onl}^ given 
 to those who did not suffer greatly the rigors of unjust laws and 
 who have the battle of life before them. As before stated, if 
 anj'thing is wanting to make the operation of the proposed law 
 uniform and justl}- fair to the people sought to be benefited, that 
 want can easily be supplied when it is found to exist. For the 
 X^resent a great work will have been done in case public attention 
 can be drawn to the subject in hand and a general approval of the 
 body politic secured . 
 
 It is proper for me to say that this subject is not a sudden 
 impulse on my part, and I have not thrust it before the law- 
 making power with undue haste. 3Iany 3'ears have elapsed since 
 the inspiration of the righteousness of some such measure first 
 dawned upon m}^ mind and since first I became persuaded that some 
 such proceeding was merited and due to a down-trodden people . I 
 have ' ' made haste slowh^ ' * in bringing the subject to public 
 attention . Like heroic old David Crockett I wished to " be sure I 
 was right and then go ahead." To this end I have canvassed the 
 matter dispassionateh^ with many leading and active citizens 
 — persons who were informed in public affairs — and have 
 corresponded with a great man}" others who occupy high stations 
 in civil life. With surprising uniformity I have found the subject 
 to be one that has been new to the people, generall}" requiring 
 thought and investis^ation to enable them to arrive at a conclusion 
 in the premises. In looking over my correspondence, which has 
 embraced experienced statesmen and law makers, I have not found 
 that any of them have been ready to advance a project that seems 
 to me just and equitable, and the performance o-f which ought not 
 to be longer seriously delaj^ed. TThen President Harrison was in 
 the Ignited States Senate I asked his opinion of the scheme now 
 laid before Congress, but did not obtain his thorough assent to the 
 
116 
 
 VAUGHAn's plea for fHE OW SLAVES* 
 
 proposition. Others like unto him were halting between twd 
 opinions . As years have rolled awsLj since this matter was brought 
 to their attention it is to be hoped that they are now ready to lend 
 a helping hand in the promotion and success of a worthy cause. It 
 may be that direful opposition will be meted out to the measure 
 now brought to the notice of the people, but I am buoyed up in 
 my purpose to have it thoroughly agitated by the reflection that 
 all great reforms have triumphed over persistent opposition. 
 
 In addressing the colored people directly interested in the 
 proposed measure, I wish to enlist them actively in a matter that 
 appeals personally to them and theirs. Their correspondence and 
 encouragement is solicited, and suggestions looking to the 
 furtherance of the scheme, beneficial mainly to them, which is 
 now for the first time publicly proposed, are most respectfull}^ 
 solicited . 
 
 I have prepared the following petition in order that all 
 petitions signed might be alike, and have caused the same to be 
 extensively published and circulated, and reproduce it here that 
 you and all friends of justice ma}^ carefully read the same, and aid 
 me at once in securing signers to Congress, that a great national 
 wrong may be righted. 
 
 TO THE PRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Very recently the subscriber sent to all newspapers whereof he had 
 knowledge, which make a specialty of representing the sentiments and 
 feelings of the African race, either in business, religion or politics, copies 
 of "The Omaha Sunday Democrat" containing the text of house bill 
 1,119, introduced in congress by Hon. W. J. Connell, of the First Nebraska 
 district, at the request of W. R. Vaughan, proposing a pension for ex- 
 slaves who were made free by the proclamation of Abraham Lincoln and 
 subsequent acts of congress, the same being confirmed by constitutional 
 amendments and statutory laws of the several states adopted at later 
 dates. In most instances the newspaper organs of the colored people have 
 been silent touching a measure of unquestionable justice to the subjects 
 of slavery emancipation, probably through a becoming sense of modesty 
 on the part of the managers and publishers. 
 
 Believing that the newspaper which appeals directly to negro support 
 must have the interest of the race at heart, the subscriber makes no 
 hesitation in asking such papers to spread before their readers a petition 
 of the general form and sentiment: 
 
vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 117 
 
 To T^E Congress of the United States: Believing that the men and 
 women who were held in slavery prior to the war of the rebellion are 
 entitled to just recompense for their j^ears of involuntary servitude, the 
 subscribers appeal to the congress of the United States for the passage of 
 "Vaughan's Freedmen's Pension Bill," introduced in congress June 24, 
 1890, by the Hon. W. J. Connell, of Nebraska. The measure we conceive 
 to be right in spirit, and it bears the evidence of true economy in its 
 preparation. It recognizes the right of the claim of freedmen for aid, 
 but it leaves them in a condition requiring industry in order that they 
 may procure a comfortable and permanent maintenance. Therefore the 
 subscribers beg leave to appeal to the humanity of congress in session in 
 favor of the passage of the Vaughan Freedmen's Pension Bill. 
 
 Your petitioners will ever pray : 
 
 NAME 
 
 RESn)ENCE 
 
 o o 
 
 0) bJD 
 
 3 § 
 
 Petitions similar to the above and other communications may be 
 addressed to W. R. Vaughan, either at Omaha, Neb., or Washington, D. C, 
 as he proposes to open an office in the latter city at an early day, and all 
 communications addressed to Omaha will be forwarded there. Cutout the 
 above petition and attach it to a sheet of legal cap paper, or re-write the 
 substance of it if deemed best. The work taken in hand will be pursued 
 to success or until death shall prevent further effort. 
 
 Will the representative press of the colored race and other newspapers 
 friendly to a great cause kindly publish this circular as a matter of news 
 and in justice to an oppressed people? It is believed that appropriate 
 petitions, once fairly circulated, will be very largely signed. Address, 
 
 W. R. Vaughan, Omaha, Neb., 
 Or Washington, D. C. 
 
118 
 
 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 Concluding an appeal to the Congress, the States and the 
 People, in behalf of the late subjects of slavery within the United 
 States, it is just and fair to the subjects of a once enslaved race, 
 to say to the readers of this volume, that it is a popular error 
 which writes down the sons and daughters of Africa as barbarians 
 from the beginning of time. They were not such, or all history 
 is false in what it records of the human race. Speculation as to 
 the correctness of the biblical version of the confusion of tongues 
 and the separation of races, in the earliest ages of which we have 
 any published account, would be vain. That the black race 
 inhabited the continent of Africa is a point beyond dispute, but 
 that they have always been ignorant, barbarous and brutal, is not 
 sustained by any competent authority now extant. On the other 
 hand the region of country lying north of the Great Desert is one 
 of remote historical account, and it has been the seat of learning, 
 science and vast mechanical skill. Egj^pt, and the country con- 
 tiguous to the mouth of the Nile , has a history as old as civiliza- . 
 tion. But far back of any authenticated narrative of the present 
 age, that country was peopled b}^ a race of men cultured in the 
 arts, sciences and useful mechanics, which are the rich heritages 
 of a great, a powerful and a noble people. In the patriarchal 
 ages Egypt was aland of corn and wine. When Western Asia 
 was the seat of empire, where Abraham built the altar upon which 
 to make a sacrifice of his son ; where Jacob saw the ladder upon 
 which angels were seen descending from heaven to earth, and 
 returning to the regions of bliss again; where the brethren of 
 Joseph sold him into captivity and sent him as a slave into Egypt, 
 and by chance into the palace of the Pharaohs; from whence the 
 sons of Jacob journeyed to Egypt for bread, when Palestine was 
 famishiag with hunger, and there found the brother of the striped 
 coat, installed in the palace of the king; in that ancient day 
 Egypt was the land flowing with milk and honey, while the 
 balance of the known world was a barren desert, where Gaunt 
 Hunger was the monarch of all he surveyed. 
 
 Within the reign of the Pharaohs, or following their control of 
 empire, the Pyramids were built, and hecatombs were constructed, 
 which have been the wonder of the world. Before the reign of 
 the Csesars began at Rome, the seat of civilization was in upper 
 Africa. There temples were built, monuments were raised, and 
 wonders performed which have excited the admiration of the 
 
YAUGrHAX's PLEA FOR THE OLD .^LAVES 
 
 119 
 
 world during subsequent time. Who built the pyramids ? What 
 knowledge of mechanics did they possess by means of vrhich solid 
 stones, of the dimensions of 40.960 cubic feet, weighing 4.587.520 
 pounds, or nearly 2.300 tons, were elevated an hundred feet above 
 the surface of the earth, and placed in a solid wall? Great men 
 did this thing: and if we may believe the instruction of clearly 
 convincing circumstances these men were Negroes I 
 
 AVhatever may have been the blood of Cleopatra, whose arts 
 led captive Mark Antony and defied the authority of the C tesars. 
 it cannot be Cjuestioned that she followed in the footsteps of the 
 ancient Afric princes of Egypt. Although the black races of 
 Northern Africa were driven across the desert and despoiled of 
 their possessions, so did the power of the white race decline in 
 Southern Europe, and the whole world was involved in darkness 
 for many generations. It is not true that the Moors and other 
 southern races of Europe were the progenitors of civilization in 
 Egypt and the Barbary States. On the contrary, the Moors sprang 
 from the expelled African races, driven out by internal dissentions 
 of which there can be found no adeciuate account. The barbarism 
 of the negro rost from civil strife, fomented and encouraged by 
 the grasping avarice of foreign powers. 
 
 As a grand division of the globe. Africa is the second in point 
 of size, only being exceeded by Asia. It is known to current his- 
 tory, and will be for perhaps more than a century to come, as - "the 
 dark continent'" and the land of mystery. During the nineteenth 
 century a good deal has been done to open it up to us by the enter- 
 prise of explorers, the zeal of missionaries, the perseverance of 
 commercial specitlation and the military aggressions of dominant 
 European powers. England. France and Germany are contending 
 for the mastery, and the success of either of them means the grad- 
 ual extirpation of the savage African nations which have been 
 driven from their ancient seats of empire to become the tribal occu- 
 pants of more sotithern regions and sea coast settlements south of 
 Sahara. Erom the ranks of those refugees, a^ they became in- 
 volved in turmoil, one community against another, the pirates 
 from Europe have peopled the states of Xorth and South America 
 with slaves. 
 
 Even after the explorations of such learned priigrims in the 
 catise of discovery as Mungo Park. David Livingstone and Henry 
 M. .Stanley. Africa is comparatively an unknown region; but the 
 more it is explored the more convincing becomes the settled con- 
 clusion that its native population has grown up from scattered 
 
120 
 
 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 fragments of colonies driven out of the northern region by the 
 dread circumstance of war. The extent of its population is un- 
 known. Some- travelers and writers have estimated the native in- 
 habitants to be as low as twenty-five millions of people, while 
 others have stated one hundred millions to be too low a figure. All 
 agree, however, that the progress of degradation has gradually 
 gone forward since the dajs when the ancient population was driven 
 away from home and possessions to become a race of wanderers 
 upon the earth.. In their first settlement, even in the wilder- 
 ness, some of the pioneers carried with them a knowledge of 
 mechanic arts and processes which have gradually been lost as the 
 cloud of ignorance and superstition settled over the people . They 
 built cities, the ruins of which have been found. They had great 
 and elaborate works of art, and were successful as agriculturalists. 
 There are yet to be found evidences of ancient religious training, 
 showing that the races sprang from a parentage which believed in 
 One Source and Supremacy of Eternal Power. But, as contact 
 with the world was forgotten, barbarism became the rule; and in 
 place of an abode of learning and useful arts "the dark conti- 
 nent" has supplied the world with the most lamentable examples 
 of human misery and the most hideous instances of crime. As a 
 strong community prayed upon a weak, and men and women were 
 constantly made captives in war, even the savage heart became 
 sated with rapine and butchery; and their reduction of captives to 
 a condition of slavery followed just as naturally as the darkness of 
 night follows the light of day . 
 
 The spoliation of ordinary robbers and buccaneers did not 
 complete the work of African subjugation, the extension of 
 primal slave-making having been the work of Christian nations, 
 which carried the captives of robber chieftains into foreign lands. 
 There the captive of the savage became the slave of the bible 
 reading people, who daily blessed God because the creatures of 
 bondage had fallen into the hands of pious people able to learn 
 them the straight and narrow path that leads to the throne of 
 heaven! 
 
 It has been truly remarked of Africa that the dark continent 
 presents the singular anomoly of having been the home of ancient 
 civilization, and the prey of the modern rapacity and plunder of 
 all nations. It is natural, therefore, that in regard to the plun- 
 dered portions of this vast area the world should be comparatively 
 uninformed, even after the explorations of the last half centur}^, 
 which have given a wider knowledge of its physical geography 
 
VAUGHAX S PLEA FOE THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 121 
 
 and of the character of its savage iuhabitancy than had hitherto 
 been possessed. 
 
 As long ago as the fifteenth centnry explorers from Portugal 
 made tours of examination and discovery along the east and west 
 coasts of Africa. In that day Portugal was perhaps the first mar- 
 ilime power in Europe. The crown gave kingly encouragement to 
 tours of discovery . These were prosecuted not onl}^ along the shores 
 of Africa, in the eastern hemisphere, but extensively in the western 
 hemisphere, with respect to North and South America and the 
 ^Vest India isL^nds. following the first discoveries of Columbus. 
 This spirit of adA^enture gave to Portuguese merchants the advan- 
 tage of learning the source of supplying vessels with slaves in 
 Africa, and also of knowing a read}^ and valuable market in the 
 new world. But while engaged in their explorations the Portu- 
 guese made valuable discoveries, which are of consequence in 
 showing that many of the African tribes had maintained a fair 
 order of ciA'ilization in spite of their forcible expulsion from their 
 ancient realm into the savagery of the wilds lying south of the 
 ec[uator, Yasco de Gama made a voyage as earl}^ as 1497 which 
 resulted in the discover}^ of Xatal, Mozambiciue and a number of 
 small islands off the coast of Africa, and in them he found a peo- 
 ple which enjoyed a high state of commercial advancement and 
 ver}' many of the evidences of civilization which had come to them 
 from the reign of Cleopatra and the time wherein the Caesars ruled 
 Egypt. AY ith their banishment they had not degenerated into a 
 savage state, but had maintained a fair degree of the eminent con- 
 dition which pervaded Northern Africa in the palm}' daj's of the 
 splendor and refinement of their forefathers. True, they had 
 fallen under the influence of the missionaries of Mohammed and 
 adopted the faith of the prophet of Allah. But this fact is not 
 surprising when it is remembered that the birthplace of Jesus 
 Christ has become abject in its acknowledgment of Mohammedan 
 rule, while Jerusalem, the city of the Great King, has a Mosque 
 on the sacred spot where the Savior once expelled harpies and 
 traders from the temple, declaring to them that the}^ had made the 
 Father's house a den of thieves. All over the land where the 
 Man of Sorrows pursued his earthly ministry, and wrought his 
 miracles, the prevailing religion to-daj^ is that of Mohammed. 
 Xo wonder, then, that the followers of the Prophet had extended 
 their proselytism to the islands lying along the African coast, 
 prior to the time when Vasco de Gama came among them with 
 vessels from Portugal having the wings of the sea. 
 
, 122 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 
 
 De Gama found, in the islands which he visited, a population 
 enjoying all the elegant advantages of well-built cities, ports, 
 mosques for the worship of Allah according to the teachings of 
 the Moslem faith, and carrying on a valuable trade with India and 
 the Spice Islands by means of rude boats propelled partly with 
 oars and partly with sails of native manufacture. Vessels from 
 Portugal regularly visited this region for a long series of years 
 after the discovery of De Gama, and Portuguese merchants secured 
 an * affluent trade. In the meantime the news of the discovery 
 went abroad, and other European powers established colonies at 
 different places on the African coast; so that in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury a general examination of the coast line of Africa was made 
 from the mouth of the River Senegal, on the west coast, to the 
 entrance into the Gulf of Aden on the east coast, being the south 
 entrance into the waters of the Red Sea. 
 
 Notwithstanding these advances in matters of African explora- 
 tion nearly two hundred years passed away before enterprising 
 efforts were made to penetrate the interior of the continent. All 
 that had been done amounted to a geographical and mercantile 
 exploration of the coast line and the establishment of a few com- 
 mercial settlements. The English government effected a settlement 
 at the Cape of Good Hope, and with characteristic enterprise 
 occupied the territory immediately tributary to their colony. 
 From this base of operations that government has spread out its 
 work of aggrandizement until it now controls the bulk of the 
 African trade. But in all that the agents of the British nation- 
 ality have discovered, there has been no fact brought to light 
 which will gainsay the theory that the Negro races of Africa, how- 
 ever barbarized or unlettered, have not been the descendants 
 of a civilized condition of society at some remote era. Those 
 tribes which have been most oppressed, and made the subjects of 
 incursions by more powerful bands, in the interests of slave 
 traders, have sunk deepest into degradation. It is those which 
 have been able to maintain a well regulated system of defense, 
 and to keep at bay predatory incursionists , that present to 
 strangers who have visited them the evidences of natural superi- 
 ority and the unmistakable indications of having known a 
 better day. 
 
 It was not until 1795 that Mungo Park, an adventursome 
 Scotch explorer, who had conceived the idea of breaking the shell 
 of outer Africa, and penetrating the interior, with a view of 
 learning what might be found there, proceeded to put his enter- 
 
VAUGHAN S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 123 
 
 prise into operation. After two 3"ears of hardship and privation 
 he returned to G-reat Britain and published a volume recounting 
 his discoveries and hair-breadth escapes, which, for a time, were 
 the marvels of the world, surpassing the captivating stories of 
 fiction. His narrative was reduced to entertaining simplicity, 
 published partially in school books, and in small volumes for the 
 attraction ®f j^outh. But the point with which we mainly have 
 to deal is the fact that he found the Mohammedan religion prevail- 
 ing along the banks of the ^viger, carrying out the idea that ev§n 
 the barbarous tribes furnished evidence of having descended from 
 a higher plane of life . Mungo Park made a second voyage to 
 Africa in 1805, and lost his life b}' drowning on the upper waters 
 of the Niger, where he was ambushed b}^ natives in a narrow pass, 
 and sought to escape b}- swimming to the opposite shore. 
 
 The observations of Mungo Park and the discoveries made by 
 him whetted the desire for further information. Denham and 
 Clapperton, English merchants, in 1822, fitted out a caravan from 
 Tripoli, on the Mediterranean sea, from whence the expedition 
 crossed the G-reat Desert and reached Lake Tchad, on the line 
 dividing the districts of Kanem and Bornu, in interior Africa, 
 from which point an extensive exploration of contiguous territor}^ 
 was made. This expedition confirmed manj^ of the theories of 
 Mungo Park in the conclusion that South Africa had once been a 
 seat of great enterprise, accompanied with a fair degree of 
 civilization . 
 
 "\Vith the later discoveries of Dr. David Livingstone, and, fol- 
 lowing him, of the intrepid American adventurer, Henr}^ M. 
 Stanle}', the reading people of the whole world are fully familiar. 
 AVhile the people of almost every land on the globe are perusing 
 the last narrative of Stanley, it is unnecessar}' to repeat the con- 
 ditions which he has found to exist. He has imparted sufficient 
 information for cultured men to arrive at the just conclusion that 
 Africa has not always been the dark continent as it now appears to 
 us, but that it has been the theater of great exploits in the past 
 ages, the record of which has been lost to mankind. 
 
 This line of thought and deduction has been pursued by the 
 writer with a view of convincing men of the white race, Avho ma}^ 
 take time to peruse this volume, that the negro race is capable of 
 the highest degree of civilization, and that the dusky people of 
 African extraction can maintain a place with honor along side of 
 the most famous nations of the globe . All that is required to prove 
 the force and truth of such a theory is to give the negro a fair 
 
124 VAUGHAN*S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 start in life as a newly made freeman ; and in no way can this work 
 be more speedily and satisfactorily accomplished than by giving 
 an adequate compensation to those of the race who have been un- 
 justly held in vassalage from their youth up. While righting a 
 wrong the men and women who have suffered wrong will be 
 started upon a new existence. They will hold up their heads in 
 pride, because the country they love and have served, both in 
 bondage and as freemen, has had the courage to do them justice. 
 
 It would be manifestly unjust to the negro people of America 
 for this discussion of what Africa has been in the past , to be closed 
 without calling attention to a criticism which has been often in- 
 dulged, even by men holding high places in the government. 
 
 The objection has been raised against the Negro, as a distinctive 
 feature of the human race, that his subjugation and reduction to a 
 condition of slavery constituted an unanswerable argument against 
 his capacity of maintaining a high standard of. excellence after 
 having arrived at such an eminence. Surely this view has not 
 been well taken, and facts certainly will not support it. Because 
 Africa has been the seat of learning and empire, and has been peo- 
 pled by a race who builded cities and towns and monuments of 
 great]iess, and, after the lapse of ages, her population became dis- 
 persed, her knowledge of learning destroyed and the genius of her 
 great inventors brought to nought, it cannot be said that other 
 people of various races have not suffered the same degradation 
 and humiliation. The researches which have been made upon 
 American soil teaches the unmistakable lesson that in this land 
 there once existed a nation, or nations, taught in the highest de- 
 gree of scholastic information . The buried cities which have been 
 brought to light tell the story of lost greatness in terms that can- 
 not be misunderstood. 
 
 Beginning with the researches of John L. Stephens in Central 
 America, and adding to the information which he imparted to the 
 world the subsequent discoveries of other explorers, we must ad- 
 mit that the North American continent was peopled, in a for- 
 gotten past, by races of men who were skilled in all the arts and 
 sciences requisite to make enlightened nations. They builded 
 cities, raised temples and monuments and conducted a thriving 
 commerce, of which convincing traces have been found. 
 
 Who were these people ? Whence did they come ? How were 
 they overthrown ? Was it by the arms and prowess of conquerors, 
 or by some terrible commotion of nature ? If the former , what be- 
 came of the conquerors ? If the latter , may it not be equally true 
 
YAUGHAX'S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 
 
 125 
 
 that the learning, the greatness and the productive T^'ealth of 
 ancient African nations fell before the hurricane, the whirlwind or 
 the earthquake of nature, just as American cities were buried and 
 wiped out of existence ? 
 
 When Christopher Columbus discovered the western hemis- 
 phere, he found here tribes of savages of a lineage before unknown 
 to the world. As subsequent discoveries were made in new 
 quarters there continued to be found tribes differing in some 
 features, but preserving the general outlines of one people. 
 Whether these tribes descended from an ancient population 
 which dwelt in cities and pursued avocations of civilized life, 
 cannot be known. All is a matter of conjecture and speculation. 
 But the fact remains that the work of destruction once swept 
 over the land wherein we live, just as it did over the con- 
 tinent of Africa. Whether the besom of destruction was 
 simultaneous in both hemispheres, or whether countless ages inter- 
 vened between the visitation of wrath in the two lands, is a prob- 
 lem which may never be solved. But the conclusion is irresistible 
 that the negro race is no more accountable for the destruction 
 which visited Africa, than that the races found on American soil 
 can be held responsible for the overturning of the empire which 
 once flourished here. 
 
 In her d^y Bab^don was a great cit^-, the home of prophets 
 and patriarchs, the seat of learning, luxurj^ and fabulous wealth. 
 Her rulers were the most powerful men of earth. The glory of 
 the great city was the wonder of the world, and her splendor 
 appeared likel}" to endure forever. That city fell, and the site 
 where it existed is the abode of the howling lij^ena and other 
 savage beasts of the forest. The Xegroes who dwelt in the 
 buried cities of Africa should not be regarded as careless defenders 
 of their pristine glory an}' more than that the Asiatic natives 
 should be gibetted for having suffered Babjdon to fall. 
 
 The duty uf the men of the present da}' is to discard all cavil, 
 and to face manfull}' the stubborn fact that the government of the 
 United States did, for three-quarters of a centur}', suffer a gigantic 
 wrong to be perpetrated upon an enslaved race.. The stigma of 
 that wrong will endure forever, unless the government shall 
 recompense the survivors of the race who patiently endured such 
 a flagrant act of injustice. The performance of an act of justice 
 owing to the ex-slaves of the United States, will redound to the 
 honor of a great nation and will receive the admiration and 
 encomium of all the generous and noble people of the world. 
 
ADDENDA. 
 
 Since the foregoing pages were written and thrown out for the 
 candid consideration of reading and thinking persons of every 
 class, race, and sex, the author has visited several States and has 
 discussed his views in public meetings, composed of ladies and 
 gentlemen of both white and black color — of the Caucasian race 
 as well as of Ethiopian lineage. Wherever the subject of a pen- 
 sion to a class of citizens who have been kept for ages in bondage 
 against their will, and in defiance of human right, has been can- 
 didly discussed, the justice of the proposition advocated in these 
 pages has been freely admitted, and the objections advanced ; when- 
 ever any have been seriously raised or merely suggested, have inva- 
 riably been directed in a single channel, — the vast expense attend- 
 ant upon the extension of the pension rolls so as to include the 
 millions of people who were held aforetime in the bonds of servi- 
 tude. This objection, which is the material cause of opposition 
 from all sources, partakes of the same nature as the logic so often 
 indulged in former years by philanthropically inclmed slave- 
 holders when they assigned reasons for not emancipating their own 
 slaves. Since the era of the formation of this republic, as well as 
 in colonial days, and in the years antedating that period, there has 
 existed a fair percentage of the slave-holding classes which hoartily 
 anathematized the existence of the institution of human slavery, 
 and which would have yielded readily to an edict of emancipation 
 that would not have entailed a burden, seeming to be intolerable, 
 upon themselves. When the condition of a great civil war spread 
 its pall athwart the land the way was opened for the setting of an 
 oppressed race free, regardless of the master^s will. But as has 
 been fully shown in the preceding pages the thunder-stroke of 
 freedom, when it descended upon the land, shattering in frag- 
 ments all preconceived ideas and conditions, in no wise provided 
 compensation, even in a remote degree, for the unwilling subjects 
 of years of unrequited toil and inhuman bondage. The Govern- 
 ment, at the will and behest of its temporary administrators, turned 
 adrift from homes of comfort and abundance for the wants of the 
 physical man millions of human beings whose toil and labor had 
 enriched the nation as well as the masters of the emancipated serfs. 
 The requiting of the wrong so long perpetrated and so suddenly 
 destroyed, entailing misery in thousands of instances instead of 
 direct benefits, becomes a solemn duty of the Government; and that 
 it will occasion a heavy draft upon the public treasury and upon 
 the tax-payers of the land ought not to be considered for a single 
 moment. The questions immediately presented are these: Is the 
 proposed remedy an act of justice? Is it the right of the ex-slaves 
 that they have compensation for wronsfs endured? Can a great 
 
 126 
 
ADDEXDA. 
 
 127 
 
 and beneficent government deliberately sanction a cruelty and a 
 wrong without making reasonable indemnity for the wrong 
 alSictedP 
 
 If these questions may be affirmatively answered — and reason 
 and justice alike dictate that they shall be — then it becomes appar- 
 ent to every candid man that the question of expense must not be 
 permitted to enter into a discussion of the duty which the Govern- 
 ment owes to its emancipated millions of former slaves. They 
 were held as slaves pursuant to the will of the Government law- 
 fully expressed. At the Governmental will the shackels of slaverv 
 were removed. Xow let the Government do right by the subjects 
 of its monstrous error, regardless of the question of expense oj- of 
 the taxes that must be entailed upon the people. 
 
 In all the discussion through the columns of the daily press and 
 in the pages of magazine literature respecting the settlement of 
 the negro problem, there appears to have been a studious effort 
 by writers to thrust aside the matter of making reparation to 
 the negroes themselves for the injustice they have suffered dur- 
 ing their years of unrequited servitude. Senators and Represen- 
 tatives of Congress, clergymen from the pulpit and scholais from 
 college halls have rushed into print to solve the negro problem; 
 and after all the learned essays they have written and the sapient 
 methods they have devised for the elucidation of a question of vast 
 magnitude, the problem appears to lack solution in the same 
 degree that the first learned writer found it unsolved when he 
 undertook the task of solving it. 
 
 Xearly all the negro problem discussionists have held forth 
 the idea that the want of the old slaves is the establishment of 
 schools, colleges, churches and the like for the education of the 
 young generation of negroes and for the moral culture of the 
 black people, young and old alike. The physical comfort and 
 temporal welfare of the negro race does not appear to have 
 engaged the attention of a single one of the many distinguished 
 statesmen, philosophers and scholars \vho have undertaken the 
 solution of the negro problem, concerning which they have been 
 so terribly exorcised. 
 
 Writing from the House of Kepresentatives at Washington, 
 under date of January 31, 1S91, concerning Vaughan^s Freedmen^s 
 Pension Bill, the Hon. W. J. Connell, representative from the 
 first Xebraska district, who introduced that measure at the ear- 
 nest request of its author, has this to say: 
 
 Hox. W. R. Vaughax: Dear Sir — The package of your 
 Plea for American Freed men ^' was duly received and distrib- 
 uted as you directed. In addition to furnishing the Committee 
 on Pensions with the desired number of copies, I also gave a copy 
 to each of the three colored representatives now in the House. 1 
 have since had some talk with one or two of them regarding your 
 bill. It seems to be their opinion that some different measure for 
 the benefit of ex-slaves could be passed, which would be more 
 acceptable to them and the colored race. As Mr. Langston put 
 it: '''What we want is the means of obtaining knowledge and 
 useful information which will fit the rising generation for honor- 
 
128 
 
 ADDENDAe 
 
 able and useful employment." I doubt if there will be any defi- 
 nite action on the bill at this session of Congress. Erom what I 
 can learn the committee is not inclined to make a favorable 
 report. I suppose this was somewhat anticipated. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 W. J. COKi^ELL. 
 
 So, according to the foregoing letter, even so eminent a colored 
 statesman as the Hon. John M. Langston, to whom a small part 
 of this little volume has been devoted, appears to fall into the 
 groove af thinking that the negroes who suffered the martyrdom 
 of slavery, and the pangs of hunger and nakedness consequent 
 upon sudden and unexpected emancipation, may be compensated 
 for the woes of generations of serfdom by making provision for 
 knowledge and useful information to be imparted to the '^ris- 
 ing generation! " In the name of all that is holy it may be asked 
 whetlier the rising generation " has not been suitably provided 
 for, at least until such time as the hoary-headed men and women 
 who endured the heat and burden of lifetimes of abject toil have 
 been in bome measure compensated for the sweat and suffering 
 they endured before the chains of slavery slipped from their limbs 
 under the booming of artillery, the tramp of cavalry, the rattle of 
 the arms of infantry and all the bitter circumstances of four years 
 of blood-red war? 
 
 It can not be certainly claimed that there has been any lack of 
 effort, either North or South, since the close of the rebellion and 
 the era of reconstruction to provide full means of general knowl- 
 edge and useful information" for the rising generation " which 
 has been begotten of ex-slave parentage. Even so able a writer in 
 the interest of the negro as George W. Cable, who seems to have 
 imbibed the Langstonian idea in a measure, that knowledge and 
 useful information" is a suitable panacea for all the ills of which 
 the black race can complain, has admitted in his treatise published 
 in the Forum of August, 1888, that ample educational provision 
 has been made for the colored people since they have been set free 
 from chattel servitude. In his able pen production Mr. Cable has 
 this to say: 
 
 The freedom of the negro was bought at a higher price, in 
 white men's blood and treasure, than any people ever paid, of 
 their own blood and treasure, for their own liberty. Since the 
 close of the war many millions of dollars have been spent by pri- 
 vate benevolence in the North to qualify the Southern negro, 
 morally and intellectually, for his new freedom, and the outlay 
 continues still undiminished. No equal number of people else- 
 where on earth receives so great an amount of missionary educa- 
 tional aid. In the South itself a great change has taken — is tak- 
 ing — place in popular sentiment concerning certain aspects of the 
 negro's case. In 1885-86 over 58 per cent, of the colored school 
 population in seven great Southern States was enrolled in State 
 public schools, in recognition of the necessity and advantage of 
 the negro's elevation." 
 
 The census reports of 1890 show that the statement of Mr. 
 Cable is borne out and even exceeded by facts, not only in seven 
 
ADDENDA. 
 
 States but in every State of the South where slavery existed before 
 the war. 
 
 An exhaustive examination of the sentiments of nearly all edu- 
 cational writers who have interested themselves in the matter of 
 negro schools and colleges for the use and benefit of freedmen, has 
 led to the conclusion that an opinion generally prevails among edu- 
 cators to the effect that complete justice has been done to the ex-slave 
 in such lines, and that the good work will continue in coming years. 
 It can not be, then, truly claimed, as Congressman Langston has 
 put it, that the acquirement of knowledge and useful informa- 
 tion^' on the part of the ex-slaves has been neglected by the States 
 or by the people. Neither has his religious training been 
 neglected. Churches have grown on nearly every hill-side and in 
 the green valleys of the South, where the black children of old 
 slave fathers and mothers go side by side with their gray-haired 
 parents to hear the gospel expounded at the regular call of the Sab- 
 bath bell. Education and religion have been held out to the freed- 
 men with a lavish hand. 
 
 But men can not feed upon husks. If, as the Scriptures teach, 
 
 man can not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceed- 
 eth out of the mouth of God/' so may it also be said that the 
 '''word'' would constitute miserably poor aid and comfort in case 
 the bread should be wholly withdrawn. While education and 
 religion are sent broadcast over the South for the benefit of the 
 
 rising generation," there are the old and poor who delved from 
 early morn till dewy eve in the da3^s of their young manhood and 
 Avomanhood, and who now stand up for justice and say to the law- 
 givers, ^' Compensate us for the ills v/e endured in the days when 
 our sweat and toil went to make up the fatness of the master's 
 table ! The Government compelled our labor. Now, you have 
 acknowledged its injustice, pay us at least a stipend of that which 
 we earned for others!" 
 
 In the two decades which have elapsed since the author of this 
 volume first contemplated an appeal to the people for a national 
 recognition of the just claims of ex-slaves to financial indemnity 
 because of past wrongs suffered, and in the eight years which have 
 passed into history since the initiative of the work was undertaken 
 there has been found no intelligent citizen who has undertaken to 
 combat the propriety of extending to the negro race the most 
 liberal aid for the advancement of intellectual and educational 
 progress among their people. But outside of promoting schools 
 and colleges, and the erection of churches wherever there appeared 
 to be a neighborhood demand for the preaching of the gospel, 
 public interest appears to have measurably ceased except in polit- 
 ical lines. 
 
 The politician is always an active factor in securing votes for his 
 party, and hence the negro has not been neglected in the extent or 
 earnestness of the advice that has been given him respecting the 
 time and manner of enjoying the liberty of the ballot. Great 
 concern is manifested at election periods as to where he shall vote, 
 how he shall vote, and that he shall be sure to vote. Generally the 
 anxiety touching these points has much less to do with the weal 
 
130 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 that is to attach directly to the negro, in consequence of benefits 
 that may inure to him because of the success of one political party 
 or the defeat of another, than it has for the particular candidate 
 for office, or the political party in whose interest the officious par- 
 tisan is engaged in expending his laborious efforts. Still it is the 
 right and indeed the duty of all citizens to vote, regardless of color, 
 and to vote intelligently. On this subject right thinking men of 
 all creeds and kinds are agreed ; and there is, perhaps, less of au 
 inclination to debar the negro from the enjoyment of the elective 
 franchise than has been frequently represented upon the rostrum 
 and through the press. It is probable that in times of excitement 
 in certain localities obstacles have been thrown in the way of a free 
 ballot, and thereby some voters of color have been prevented from 
 exercising an inestimable right. Occasionally white men have 
 suffered a similar wrong. But in the main elections have been 
 free and open, and persons lawfully entitled to vote have been 
 permitted to exercise their rights without fear or favor. Those 
 who have failed to exercise the elector's privilege have done so, 
 in most instances, through their own inaction and negligence. 
 On this subject, Mr. George W. Cable, a friend of the negro, in 
 his fine magazine article already referred to, has given some most 
 excellent advice, and an excerpt therefrom will not be out of place. 
 Mr. Cable says : 
 
 ''^Vote! Cast your vote though taxed for it. Cast your vote 
 though defrauded of it, as many a white man is to-day. Cast your 
 vote though you die for it. Let no man cry, 'Liberty or blood ;^ 
 leave that for socialists and Parisian mobs; but when liberty means 
 duty, and death means one's own extinction, then the cry of ^ lib- 
 erty or death ' is a holy cry, and the man who will not make it his 
 own, even in freedom, is not free. Seek not to buy liberty with the 
 blood neither of friends nor of enemies; it is only men's own blood 
 at last that counts in the purchase of liberty. Whatever may have 
 been the true philosophy for more ferocious times, this is the true 
 philosophy for ours. Cast your votes, then, even though many ol 
 you die for it. Some of you have died, but in comparison how 
 few; three hundred thousand white men poured out their blood 
 to keep you bound, other three hundred thousand died to set you 
 free, and still the measure of American freedom is not yours. A 
 fiftieth as much of your own blood shed in the inoffensive activi- 
 ties of public duty will buy it. Keep your vote alive; better nine 
 free men than ten half free. In most of the Southern States the 
 negro vote has been diminishing steadily for years, to the profound 
 satisfaction of those white men whose suicidal policy is to keep you 
 in alienism. In the name of the dead, black or white, of the living, 
 and of your children yet unborn, not of one party or another, but an 
 American freemen, vote! For in this free land the people who do 
 not vote do not get and do not deserve their rights." 
 
 The importance of the ballot is not overestimated by Mr. 
 Cable, and the fire that exudes from his electric pen ought to blaze 
 in every freeman's heart — especially in the heart of every negro 
 freeman who realizes his natural rights and who would have them 
 granted, not as a boon but as a measure of justice. The ballot alone 
 
ACDEXDA. 
 
 131 
 
 does not satisfy the debt whicli the country owes to the ex-slave^ 
 but it will be a potent means of securing the rights so long and 
 unjustly deferred if used in a safe, a prudent and a worthy manner. 
 Xeither will the voter be called upon to wade through streams of 
 blood or to lay down his life as a sacrifice in order to secure the 
 ends of justice as the tenor of the foregoing extract might imply. 
 Indeed, the men of the Sotith, who once held^the negroes in sub- 
 jection as their personal estate, are nearly uuanimous in their 
 approval of the right of sulfrage on the part of their former slaves, 
 and the right carries with it the duty to exercise that right. At 
 least such is the sentiment of the educated men of the South, and 
 these constitute there, as everywhere, the ruling class. General 
 Wade Hampton, while holding tip to view the sad consequences of 
 negro supremacy in South Carolina during the reconstruction 
 period and making an able argument against a policy that would 
 reproduce such an inexcusable blunder, takes occasion in the 
 columns of the Forum (see June number 1S88) to defend the right 
 of the negro to the ballot when qualified to exercise it, and to pro- 
 claim himself an early champion of such suffrage, having officially 
 advocated the same when serving as governor of the State. Upon 
 this subject General Hampton wrote: 
 
 '■'I am making no argument against their right to vote (right 
 of the negroes), for in 1S6T, before Congress had taken any action 
 looking to this result, I maintained that this privilege should be 
 extended to them under educational qualifications. I recognized 
 then that in a republic such as ours no citizen ought to be excluded 
 from any of tlie rights of citizenship because of his color or of 
 any other arbitrary distinction. I therefore advocated, in a pub- 
 lic address, tliat the State which then, under the Constitution, had 
 absolute power to fix the qualific»tion of voters should give the 
 elective franchise to the negroes, protecting itself by imposing an 
 e d u c at i 0 n al q u al i fi c a ti 0 n . 
 
 It would naturally appear from this voluntary declaration of 
 General Hampton, who ha? just retired from the United States 
 Senate after twelve years of service in behalf of his State, that 
 there can be no well-defined reason for fearing that the suffrage 
 of negro citizens is likely to be curtailed in South Carolina; and 
 if not in that State, it is exceedingly improbable that such an 
 attempt will be made anywhere else within the territory commonly 
 known as '''the South. Under the circumstances, the advice 
 given by Mr. Cable to the negro citizens of the wdiole country 
 should be made specially applicable to the Southern portion. Let 
 them vote. But in the name of humanity it may be well inquired, 
 ''What will they vote for?^' If merely to give somebody an office, 
 the franchise will certainly not be made of especial benefit to those 
 subjects of an ancient barbarism who remain with us for a time, 
 but who are passing away very rapidly, year after year; and in the 
 course of another generation there will scarcely be a single one of 
 the old slaves left to tell the tale of involuntary servitude in a 
 land which dates its historic story from the discoveries of Colum- 
 bus;, its freedom from the heroic struggle of Washington and the 
 
132 
 
 ADDEifBA. 
 
 emancipation of barbaric relics from the martyrdom of Abraham 
 Lincoln! 
 
 What shall the old slaves vote for? Shall it be that something 
 may be done for the extension of knowledge and useful imforma- 
 tion^^ to a rising generation/^ which already consumes 58 per 
 cent, of the school tax levy of a populous part of the South, and 
 which has an equal advantage in every dollar of school taxes that 
 are collected in every State, from Maine to California and from 
 the new State of Washington to the peninsula of Florida? Why, 
 there are colleges builded by voluntary contributions of money, given 
 in hope and with many a heartfelt prayer for success, which are 
 dotting the plains and the hill-sides of every State once in rebel- 
 lion against the Federal Government. In the city of Nashville 
 there are three colored universities engaged in imparting ^^knowl- 
 edge and useful information to the ^'rising generation of the 
 once enslaved South. For the current year there are 475 students 
 catalogued in all the departments of the Fisk University; in the 
 Central Tennessee College there are 541 students, and intheEoger 
 Williams College 192 students. Other parts of the South are sin- 
 gularly fortunate in the number of their colleges, seminaries and 
 high schools devoted to the especial work of imparting "knowledge 
 and useful information^' to the "rising generation" which has 
 come into existence from the sacred family relations of fathers and 
 mothers who toiled in slavish drudgery upon Southern fields prior 
 to the work of war and emancipation. 
 
 It can scarcely be said, then, that the compensation due from 
 the Government to ex-slaves, in mitigation of great wrongs endured 
 in slavish days, can be justly set aside for the behoof of '^a rising 
 generation, already fairly well provided for in the specific lines 
 which ex-Congressman Langston has laid out as the way wherein 
 justice and reparation may be established with a view to curing 
 tne wounds of body and mind which old-time slaves have been 
 made to suffer. 
 
 No, no. Do not let the blessings which coming generations 
 may possibly reap from benevolence and benefices now bestowed by 
 Government or State aid, or given in kindly gratuity from private 
 purses, close our eyes or dull our ears to the existing demand for 
 material and speedy aid due^ and owing to the gray-haired veter- 
 ans of the rice, the cotton, the corn and sugar fields of the old- 
 time South. These old men and women suffered the evils of 
 slavery. They toiled without recompense or reward. They fur- 
 nished the material prosperity of States, and their toil made their 
 masters wealthy, and their mistresses ladies. They did it willingly 
 because it was lawful that it should be done. They spent their 
 best days to make fabulous wealth for State and Nation. In an 
 hour when no man knew what was coming, they were made at 
 
 once freemen an^d paupers! The Government did it. The 
 
 Government sent them adrift from their places in life, and made a 
 national hardship to be a bitter, withering, private hardship upon 
 them and their helpless children, without a particle of provision 
 to save them from starvation and desolation. In their general 
 interest Government aid is now invoked. In their personal interest 
 
ADDEi^DA. 
 
 133 
 
 the sufferers are invoked to aid themselves by their industry an d 
 their votes, in advancing their own cause. Let them stand together 
 for themselves. Let them vote unitedly for men who will help 
 them as the cry for help is raised. Thanks to the people of the 
 North and the South, who have made these old slaves to be citi- 
 zens and voters, to the end that they may use the ballot in the day 
 of their appeal for justice to secure the establishment of that jus- 
 tice as well by their own acts as through the acts of their fellow- 
 men. 
 
 But, aside from voting in their own interest, it is the solemn 
 duty of freedmen to take such measures for the advancement of 
 their claims upon the Government which set them free as to make 
 their appeal united and compact. In voting for candidates for 
 ofiSce, as before declared, there should be unity of effort only to 
 the extent that their own fyends and advocates are chosen for 
 place, so that the places may be used to advance a noble cause. 
 Friends of the cause at heart, of every political organization, 
 ought to command the approbation and support of freedmen. 
 But for the purpose of arriving at a just conclusion as to the men 
 who may be depended upon to do the right thing at the right 
 time, there ought to be the very closest organization of freedmen, 
 and of their adherents, especially of men of color, in every com- 
 munity where an association of determined men, united in thought 
 and feeling, can be harmoniously combined for necessary work in 
 unison . 
 
 Associations of negroes and their friends ought to be formed in 
 every town and county in the United States, or in every commu- 
 nity where such formations may be found practicable, and the 
 central idea and thought of the various clubs should be the 
 advancement of the claim of freedmen for government pension. 
 The formation of a cordon of Freedmen's Pension clubs through- 
 out the land would bring together a political strength and powder 
 that would be irresistible because of its ability to sway party organ- 
 izations and to bring victory or defeat to friends or enemies as the 
 exponents of political creeds might declare themselves in speech 
 or letter when appealing for popular suffrage. In short, the plain 
 duty of freedmen is not to become indissolubly united in favor of 
 or in opposition to tariff laws or revenue laws cf any special school 
 of thought in those lines, or upon general politics, but they should 
 stand together for the advancement of their own rights. 
 
 Referring once more to the able arguments which Mr. George 
 W. Cable, in his magazine discussions, has advanced in the inter- 
 est of the negro race, while seeking to make a solution of the great 
 negro problem, it may not be amiss to reproduce his opinions upon 
 the topic of negro club formation and the propriety of such organ- 
 izations being made to spread over the States of the Union, wher-. 
 ever there may be communities having a percentage of colored cit- 
 izens suitable for the maintenance of such societies. Listen to the 
 advice of a friend. Mr. Cable, in his contribution to the August 
 number of the Forum, 1888, very truly and tersely says: 
 
 **From the earliest days of his emancipation the negro has 
 shown a zest and gift for organization, and to-day his private, pub- 
 
134 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 lie and secret societies, which cost him money to maintain, have 
 thousands of members. Yet only here and there among them is 
 there a club or league for the advocacy and promotion of his civil 
 rights. There is probably no other great national question so 
 nearly destitute of a championship of an active national organiza- 
 tion, with officers, treasury and legal counsel. The causes of this 
 are plain enough. As long as it was the supreme political issue it 
 was left, after our American fashion, entirely to the heated treat- 
 ment of the daily press, the stump, and the national and State leg- 
 islatures. From them a large part of the question passed into a 
 long period of suspense in the supreme court. Only the matter of 
 casting and counting votes kept, and keeps, the attention of par- 
 ties, and this with a constant loss of power, showing that partisan 
 treatment is no longer the questions only or chief need.^'' 
 
 The sentiments of the foregoing extract are to be commended, 
 for the especial reason that they point out to the negro a fact 
 which he must sooner or later learn, and in the long run may learn 
 to his sorrow — that ^' only the matter of casting and counting 
 votes now keeps the attention of political parties" turned to his 
 condition. Professional politicians care only for the negro on 
 account of his vote, and when that has been secured they care 
 nothing in the wide world for the man who casts the vote. He 
 may starve and die for all that the political demagogue may know 
 or care. His personal comfort, the well-being of his family, the 
 success of the individual in daily toil or commercial pursuits, in 
 no wise concerns the sleek-fed politician who has been foisted into 
 office through the medium of the ballots of colored citizens. 
 
 Hence the importance of the negroes using their talent and 
 penchant for organization in a way to advance their personal claims 
 upon the Government, and for the furtherance of their just demand 
 for indemnity for ages of wrong imposed by law under the strong 
 arm of constitutional authority. The talent of organization is a 
 happy and a safe means of securing results that will fill the purse 
 and make the aged veteran of the plantation an independent sov- 
 ereign in his old and declining days. But the chief end of such 
 organization must be directed to the immediate concerns of the 
 masses of mankind released from slavery rather than to the secur. 
 ing of technical civil rights, which will invariably follow success in 
 life. Put money in your purses and respectability will ensue just 
 as certainly as that water escaping from a gathered reservoir will 
 run down hill, pursuant to the established laws of gravitation. Let 
 associations be formed as Mr. Cable advises; and when formed, let 
 the first thought of those organizations be the requiting of the debt 
 which the Government justly owes to its former bondmen. When 
 that debt has been requited, there will be very little occasion for a 
 new demand in favor of civil rights on the part of colored citizens, 
 for the reason that their status in life will be so well established 
 that his rights will be everywhere respected in the same degree that 
 citizens of the Caucasian race have honorable and just recognition 
 in society co-extensive with their just claims and personal merits. 
 
 In the formation of clubs for the advancement of the best ends 
 of the colored race, which organizations Mr, Cable would probably 
 
ADDEXDA. 
 
 135 
 
 prefer to be known as Civil Rights Societies, but for which the 
 title of Freedmen's Pension Clubs would be in better taste and 
 more fitting for the ends to be established through the bringing of 
 men together in organized bodies, it must not be forgotten that an 
 outlay of present means will become absolutely necessary. The pro 
 rata of expense will be trivial, as it applies to each individual, but 
 it will be sufficient in the aggregate to accomplish the end in view, 
 and, like bread cast upon the water, it will return after many days. 
 Indeed, the good seed so planted will spring up and bring forth 
 fruit that may be styled, in Scriptural language, thirty, sixty and a 
 hundred-fold. The harvest will be plentiful, and the crop of 
 exceeding richness. Then organize. Do so at once, in order that 
 the effort may be joint and united, calculated to secure immediate 
 action and ready relief. Here, again, it may be in place to quote from 
 the timely and candid advice of Mr. Cable. He speaks with truth 
 and power in these words: 
 
 " And you must spend your own money. ISTo full use of the 
 liberties you now have can be made without co-operation, however 
 loose that co-operation may have to be; and no co-operation can 
 be very wide, active or effective without the use of money. This 
 tax can not be laid anywhere upon a few purses. Falling upon 
 many, it will rest too lightly to be counted a burden. White men 
 may and should help to bear it; but, if so, then all the more the 
 negro must spend his own money. Half the amount now idled 
 away on comparatively useless societies and secret orders will work 
 wonders.''^ 
 
 Perhaps the point in view would be more sharply defined and 
 better understood in case it should be said that the " compara- 
 tively useless societies and secret orders now in existence, but 
 performing or accomplishing no very desirable work, may be made 
 useful agencies in their associated existence, by imposing upon 
 them the grand labor of working harmoniously together for the 
 passage of Vaughan^s Freedmen^s Pension bill and for making the 
 plea m behalf of freedmen so potent and unmistakable, that the 
 Congress of the United States will not dare to longer delay the 
 work of justice which the condition of the ex-slaves of the repub- 
 lic to-day demands at its hands. 
 
 Perhaps it may be asked by what power of reasoning can it be 
 said that the voice of the negro race of our land may be made 
 effectual for the passage of the Vaughan bill, even in case the entire 
 colored population of the United States should stand together? 
 The answer is easy and, when the facts are understood, ought to be 
 convincing. The negroes of the United States amount to about 
 twelve per cent, of the total population. Such an aggregation of 
 people, when united in any just demand, can not fail to command 
 attention. The appeal of such a number of people in behalf of 
 justice and the right will be certain to carry conviction. The cen- 
 sus statistics of the year just passed, collated by the Federal Gov- 
 ernment, show that the numbers of the colored population have 
 not been overstated . The best informed men of the land recog- 
 nized, prior to census reports being made public, that the negro 
 was an important factor in our body politic. Senator John T. 
 
136 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 Morgan, in discussing the question, Shall Negro Majorities 
 Eule?^^ through the columns of the Forum., in February, 1889, 
 was moved to say: 
 
 ^'We have not accomplished any good to either race by confer- 
 ring upon 1,500,000 negroes the privilege of voting. Its effect is 
 to neutralize the same number of white votes that would otherwise 
 be cast with reference to the general welfare and prosperity of the 
 country/' 
 
 The spirit of Senator Morgan's dictum appears to be predicated 
 upon the fact, which possibly does not admit of question, that 
 nearly the unaniuious negro vote, immediately following the 
 enfranchisement of the race, was cast in opposition to the general 
 will and wish of the white people who had held those negroes iu 
 servitude in the time of slave days. It is needless to discuss the 
 reasons which made such a vote possible. The suddenness of suf- 
 frage extension to the negroes, coupled with the fact that the white 
 population was largely disfranchised as a penalty for participation in 
 favor of the rebellion, had a tendency to lead the newly made 
 freedmen into hostile relations with their former owners and mas- 
 ters when they became nearly sole possessors of the political field. 
 In this relation of hostility the negroes were greatly encouraged by 
 designing men from the North, who took advantage of the unnat- 
 ural situation for the advancement of their owu political and 
 money-grabbing schemes. But those days have gone by, and 
 will never return. It now remains for the white men of the 
 South, who have been restored to their normal condition as citi- 
 zens and property owners, and who constitute the large prepond 
 erance of the Southern voting strength, to aid and encourage the 
 enactment of Vaughan's Freedmen^s Pension bill as the most cer- 
 tain means for the restoration of peace and good- will between the 
 white and black citizenship of the former slave States. Such a 
 condition of amity will go further and do more towards the 
 elucidation of the extensively discussed negro problem than all 
 the essays and speeches which scholars and statesmen may be 
 able to contribute to that end. 
 
 With a hope of securing full and complete justice to the 
 ex-slave for the wrongs of government which he has been made to 
 suffer, it will be important for harmony of action to exist between 
 all his friends and advocates of the Caucasian race. In order that 
 such harmonious sentiment may prevail, the discussion of methods 
 designed to benefit the negro must be lifted above the plane of 
 party politics. If partisan prejudice can be submerged the day of 
 a great boom will very speedily dawn upon the men and women 
 who endured the dark night of slavish oppressiou, and who yet 
 remain amongst us as the representatives of that extinct species of 
 barbarism once existing in our fair land. The pension now pro- 
 posed to be extended to the ex-slaves is not a payment in complete 
 recompense for the ages of serfdom which the negroes have been 
 made to endure, but it will be accepted as an indemnity whereby 
 a great nation makes acknowledgment of its past error, just as 
 the blood ^f the Saviour shed upon the cross is recognized as an 
 indemnification for the sins of mankind. Among Christian nations 
 
ADDEXDA. 
 
 137 
 
 a money indemnity for errors of one government committed 
 against another is the accepted mode of rendering satisfaction. 
 So has it often been made the correct method of indemnifying 
 wrongs done by a gOTernnient to its own subjects. Let the negro 
 be no exception to other sufferers who have endured national 
 wrongs. Recognizing the fact that many writers who sincerely 
 desire to see the negro problem solved in a way to be just and 
 equitable towards both the Caucasian and Ethiopian races, but 
 whose apparent methods have tended to complicate the question, 
 the author of this work felt obliged to combat the views of the 
 Rev. A. D. Mayo as they were promulgated in the pages of the 
 Forum, in the November number 1890 of that excellent magazine. 
 Accordingly the writer published a communication in the Chicago 
 Herald, May 1, 1891, the object of which was to call public atten- 
 tion to the fact that money was the sole agency whereby the Gov- 
 ernment could clear its skirts from the stain of human slavery 
 which existed during three-quarters of a century of our constitu- 
 tional existence as a people. At the same time it was designed to 
 strip the question at issue of every possible shade of partisan bias. 
 This feature of the problem in hand may be concluded for the 
 purpose of this book by reproducing the communication addressed 
 to t\\Q Herald appeared under the caption of ^Oloney is 
 
 the Agency/' and reads as follows: 
 
 In the November number of the Forum there appeared a 
 thoughtful and scholarly article entitled ^'The Progress of the 
 Negro/' from the facile pen and analytical brain of Rev. Amory 
 D. Mayo, the manifest object of which was to strip the negro 
 problem of many of the difficulties which suri'ound it, and to 
 make its final elucidation not only satisfactory to all sections of 
 the American republic, but beneficial alike to the white and blacK 
 races. A careful perusal of the argument presented by the learnel 
 gentleman will afford satisfactory evidence of deep study and 
 research on the part of a philosophical thinker. But it will also 
 bear evidence to the minds of persons who have studied the negro 
 problem in other schools than that in which the graphic writer 
 has been educated that there are important points which he has 
 failed to consider altogether, while upon some of the features 
 which he has discussed his conclusions have been partially clouded 
 through a manifest political bias. While Mr. Mayo has carefully 
 refrained from indulgence in anything akin to absolute partisan- 
 ism, there is a latent vein of subtlety pervading his discourse which 
 obtrudes itself with sufficient distinctness to indicate a prejudice 
 when he discusses the relations of the ex-slaves of the South to 
 the local governments of those States wherein they were formerly 
 held in bondage. Perhaps nowhere does this feeling become so 
 marked as in the asseveration that there is no ' solid South' 
 outside of the Southern democratic party." It must be apparent 
 to every candid thinker that the political organization which con- 
 trols the local State governments of all that section of the Amer- 
 can union generally comprehended in the expression of ^'the 
 South," and has done so with scarcely a break for tw^o decades, 
 comes very near to making its dictum in political affairs an expres- 
 
138 
 
 sion of the people in such a marked degree that it is fair to say 
 that the vote of the party may be accepted as the voice of the 
 people. If this conclusion can be accepted as true, it is difficult 
 to conceive how the weal of the negroes of the South, in educa- 
 tional or civic matters, can be promoted except through such 
 measures as the dominant party may encourage or assent to. The 
 assumption that conditions in certain States point to a new polit- 
 ical domination is not borne out by recent experience. 
 
 ALL DEPENDS OIsT THE DOMINANT PARTY. 
 
 With the light of more than twenty years as a guide, running 
 down from reconstruction days to the very latest expression of 
 political sentiment through the States of the South, it naturally 
 appears that the future behoof of the Southern negro rests very 
 largely in the recognition of the fact that he must be treated solely 
 in his capacity as a citizen, without respect to such political alli- 
 ances as he may see fit to maintain. Questions of taxation, of edu- 
 cation, of the acquirement of property, and nearly all the immedi- 
 ate concerns of life, will necessarily be settled by the dominant 
 party in State affairs, and hence it is of the highest importance to 
 the negro to place no unnatural obstacles in the way of that gen- 
 erous and just treatment to which he may be rightfully entitled as 
 a citizen. It is conceded that the States of the South have made 
 generous educational provision for the colored people, especially 
 those States which are progressing most rapidly in population and 
 wealth. It is fair to presume that the good work in this direction 
 will be continued and amplified. 
 
 With respect to the religious and moral training of the Southerir 
 negroes, and the higher education of those of the race who may be 
 able to command facilities for learning beyond the ordinary pro- 
 vision which States commonly provide for the sons and daughters 
 of the rising generation, there can be no special reason assigned 
 for a variance of treatment from the accustomed action of philan- 
 thropic people in regard to the culture of young men and women 
 of white parentage. Academies, seminaries, colleges and churches 
 of all kinds may be provided in the usual way, and ought to be. 
 This is a work which has commanded the best consideration of 
 good men in every civilized land. A splendid beginning has been 
 made for the higher culture of negro youth in nearly every part of 
 the South, and to-day many thousands of the offspring of ex-slaves 
 are enjoying the advantages of classical instruction. The number 
 of these favored children of negro families is likely to keep pace 
 with the college-bred young men and women of white parentage 
 in proportion to the relative numerical strength between the two 
 races. There is no fear that religious instruction will be neglected 
 on the part of any of the churches which have succeeded in build- 
 ing up and maintaining a fair following in the various communities 
 of the South. 
 
 NEGRO LOVE FOR THE SOUTH. 
 
 W^ith Mr. Mayo the writer will heartily join in the opinion 
 expressed that the negroes, as a class, will not join in any wild and 
 
ADDEXDA. 
 
 139 
 
 fanciful hegira which impracticable people may organize^, haying 
 in view the exportation of the negro population or for it dissem- 
 ination at home.''' The negro has his local ties and home affec- 
 tions that bind him to the place of his abode and the kindred 
 he loves, just as ardently as other mortals are similarly attached. 
 Xow and then individuals^ and even families, may emigrate to new 
 States and habitations for the betterment of their circumstances, 
 but such movements are of common occurrence with men and fam- 
 ilies of the white race. In this respect the negro is a personage 
 of like feelings and impulses with other men. But the fact 
 remains true, in the face of such voluntary changes of residence, 
 that the average negro of the South '* is a Southern American man 
 by instinct, temperament and training.*' He is attached to the 
 climate, to the modes of toil, to the system of indtistry that 23re- 
 vails. and nowhere he might go would he understand so thoroughly 
 how to plant, how to harvest or how to secure the best returns for 
 the expenditure of his manual labor. He has no wish to leave the 
 scenes of his youth and his manhood, and if a condition of peril or 
 of force should oblige him to seek a new home among strangers 
 he would consider it a hardship almost too great to be borne. 
 This devoted attachment of the negro to home scenes and environ- 
 ments is more noticeable among the classes who have resided in 
 the extreme South than of the residents within the border States. 
 Larger numbers have removed from Missouri, Kentucky, the Vir- 
 ginias and ]\raryland since the conclusion of the great rebellion 
 than have gone out from the Gulf States in pursuit of new places 
 of abode. If any argument can be deduced from these facts it is 
 to the elitct that the extreme southern clime is better suited to the 
 physical comfort of the African race than the more rigorous and 
 changeable seasons prevailing along the border line. In the home 
 the negro has enjoyed and yet cherishes with warm attachment he 
 is entitled to that contentment which is a feature of his race and 
 the requisite protection to make him an independent citizen and 
 respected member of society. 
 
 QUERIES rOR THE PAIR-MIXDED. 
 
 As it is admitted, even by the carping and critical, that the 
 negro of the South, and especially of the extreme South, is devoted 
 to the local and domestic ties which have environed him since his 
 freedom from servile bondage was proclaimed; that the States of 
 the South have made provision for the education of the younger 
 generation: that the laws providing for schools and for practical 
 instruction in requisite elementary branches are continually being 
 amended, so that their application may be made more feasible and 
 serviceable: that the fullest religious and civil freedom is accorded 
 to the negro of the South equally with the white resident of that 
 section, and that commendable progress has been made by Church 
 and State during the last quarter of a century in bringing citizens 
 of the black race^up to a condition worthy of their advanced con- 
 dition in life, since the event of their emancipation, three questions 
 naturallv present themselves for the consideration of the fair, the 
 
140 
 
 ADDEl^DA. 
 
 just and the candid-minded of all classes and conditions of society, 
 viz. : 
 
 1. Is there anything remaining to be done by the States or the 
 nation necessary to place the negro in the full enjoyment of his 
 citizenship and to make him a useful addition to the governing 
 class of our population? 
 
 2. Is there an honorable obligation due from the States or the 
 nation to the negroes, so long held in bondage, that has not been 
 discharged, or sought to be discharged, by the agencies immediately 
 responsible for negro emancipation? 
 
 3. Has the emancipation from slavery, however just and 
 righteous, been an unmixed blessing to the ex-slaves, and, if not, 
 what remedial measure is awaiting performance in order that per- 
 fect justice and satisfaction may be rendered? 
 
 NOT A BOON", BUT A NECESSITY. 
 
 In attempting to answer these queries, which are so intimately 
 blended together, each one, in fact, constituting a part of the other 
 two, it will be found more satisfactory and complete to proceed 
 with the discussion in a general line rather than to attempt sep- 
 arate answers. The waiter can not agree with the proposition that 
 at any time ^'^the freedman was invited to a feast so rare, rich and 
 abounding that it is not strange if the majority of the eight mill- 
 ions have not yet learned how to behave at the great national 
 table and how to satisfy themselves with the common diet of 
 American civilization. ISo such generous feast has been provided. 
 The reference of the learned gentleman from whom quotation has 
 been made, unquestionably had direct reference to the edict of 
 emancipation, and the transition from slavery to freedom is the 
 allegorical feast which- the former subjects of the era of slavery 
 have not enjoyed with that perfect decorum which is the natural 
 attendant of perfect politeness. Emancipation came to the negro 
 not as a boon, but as a necessary contingent of a mighty war. It 
 was not the two proclamations of Abraham Lincoln that set the 
 old slaves free. Neither was it the amendment to the Federal con- 
 stitution which prohibited slavery within the nation, nor yet the 
 amendments to the organic laws of the several Southern States 
 that gave to the bondmen the precious boon of freedom. It was 
 the solid tramp of the boys in blue and the dreadful circumstances 
 of war that struck the shackles of servitude from the limbs of 
 nearly six millions of human beings. When the smoke of battle 
 had rolled away the men and women of the days of slavery and the 
 dependent little ones born of slave parentage found themselves 
 without masters^ without homes, without means of subsistence, and 
 surrounded by all the horrors of coming starvation, unless their 
 brawney arms and dusky frames were put to the severest toil for 
 the purpose of procuring immediate relief. This was the enticing 
 feast to which the old slaves were invited to sit down, and this was 
 the lavish feast of husks upon which the hunger of the emanci- 
 pated millions was to be satisfied . 
 
 HOW TO SOLYE THE GREAT PROBLEM. 
 
 For three-quarters of a century following the formation of our 
 
ADDENDA. 
 
 141 
 
 federal systeiu of government, the institution of human slavery 
 was upheld and supported under the authority of the constitution 
 of the United States. The men and women of slave days were not 
 human beings in the eyes of the law. They were chattels, subject 
 to commercial exchange the same as any other commodity. They 
 were subject to the same laws as the cotton they picked or the 
 corn they raised. The}^ were subjects for the market and for taxa- 
 tion, just as any other marketable product was taxable for the pur- 
 pose of providing a public revenue. The four dreadful years span- 
 ning the time from the assault upon Tort Sumpterto the surrender 
 of Appomattox changed the condition of the once slave, and he 
 came forth free, without a home or a place to lay his head. A 
 measure of justice on tlie part of a great government demands that 
 the old slaves be no longer denied their natural right of recom- 
 pense for all the years of toil when the strong arm of the Govern- 
 ment held them in bondage without their consent and without the 
 commission of a crime as a lawful excuse for their restraint from 
 liberty. Let the Government be just to the former subjects of 
 slavery, even at this late day, and then it will be found that the 
 negro problem will have solved itself. Then it will not be neces- 
 sary for statesmen, savants, ministers of the gospel, friends of 
 humanity and lovers of justice to meet in conventions or religious 
 bodies to seek out a way to place the subjects of a great wrong 
 upon a plane where they can work out their temporal as well as 
 their eternal salvation. As before declared, the troublesome prob- 
 lems resulting from slave days will have been solved so readily and 
 so clearly that all will wonder that it ever should have required 
 solution from a great, a generous and a noble people. 
 
 PEXSIOXS FOE THE FKEEDMEK. 
 
 For the purpose of giving ample relief to the ex-slaves of the 
 South the writer, after years of thought and an extensive corres- 
 pondence with public men of the country, prepared a bill to be 
 presented in Congress '^'to provide pensions for freedmen released 
 from involuntary servitude,'^ which was introduced in the House 
 of Repre6entatives on June 24, 1890, by William J. Connell, con- 
 gressman from the First District of Nebraska. The bill gradu- 
 ates the pensions according to the age of the pensioner, and 
 intrusts to the Secretary of the Interior the preparation of all need- 
 ful rules and regulations for carrying the act into full force and 
 effect. The bill was read twice, referred to the Pensions Commit- 
 tee and ordered to be printed. It so stands to-day upon the unfin- 
 ished business of Congress. The second section of the proposed 
 act reads as follows: 
 
 Sec. 2. Any person who may have been held as a slave or involuntary 
 servant, under and by reason of any law of the United States, or in conse- 
 quence of any device or custom prevailing within such State or the United 
 States, except for the commission of crime, whereof the party shall have 
 been duly convicted, and who shall have been released from such servitude 
 in manner before stated, and who shall at the date of the passage of this act 
 have reached the age of seventy years, shall be entitled to and receive the 
 sum of $500 from the Treasury of the United States, hereby authorized to be 
 paid out of any moneys not otherwise appropriated, and the sum of $15 per 
 
14^ 
 
 ADDEKBA. 
 
 month during the residue of their natural lives. This provision shall apply 
 to male and female alike. And all persons so released from servitude who 
 shall be less than seventy years of age and of the age of sixty years or over 
 shall be entitled to receive the sum of $300, and $12 per month until they 
 shall reach the age of seventy years, when they shall be entitled to and receive 
 the greater sum of $15 hereinbefore stated as a monthly payment. And all 
 persons released from servitude as before stated who shall be less than sixty 
 years old, and of the age of fifty years or over, shall be entitled to receive 
 the sum of $100 and also $8 per month until sixty years old, when they shall 
 receive $12. And all persons released from servitude as before stated who 
 shall be less than fifty years of age shall be entitled to receive $4 until fifty 
 years old, when they shall receive $8. All moneys herein authorized to be 
 paid shall be dispensed from the general funds of the Treasury not otherwise 
 appropriated. 
 
 MOKEY IS THE PROPER AGEKCY. 
 
 In the crude bill from whicli the foregoing section has been 
 quoted will be found the means of elucidating the negro problem, 
 which will outweigh in its practical effect all the special pleas that 
 may be put up in favor of methods to benefit the ex-slaves by con- 
 ventions of the people, either civil or religious. The negroes were 
 once slaves, made so by authority of the federal constitution. 
 They have been emancipated, but no provision has been made for 
 the support of the old and poor, who have endured the heat and 
 burden of the slavish task. Schools and colleges have been pre- 
 pared for the education of the young, but reasonable financial 
 relief will lift those who have toiled all their better days out of 
 misery and dependency in their declining years. The Government 
 can afford to exercise this act of justice and mercy as a satisfaction 
 for tlie wrong it formerly permitted and encouraged. Place the 
 old slaves in a position of financial independence, and the gordiau 
 knot which wise men have been vainly trying to untie will be at 
 once cut in twain. Money is the agency that will solve the negro 
 problem. Enable the old slaves to acquire homes, to live in com- 
 fort, and they will at once acquire a respectability they have not 
 hitherto attained. Wealth, and even a competency, always carries 
 with it the highest respect. Competency, and not poverty, will 
 solve the troublesome problem. 
 
 On one occasion a poor man approached a ferry on a broad 
 river, jnst as the ferry boat was about to cross over. He begged 
 to be taken across, but had no money. ^^The fare is only five 
 cents,^^ said the ferryman. The poor man replied, " I have not 
 the five cents." After pondering a few seconds the ferryman 
 remarked: Well, I guess you had better remain where you are. 
 If you are not possessed of a single 5-cent piece, it can^t make any 
 difference which side of the river you^re on.^' This little story 
 amply illustrates the condition of the freedmen consequent upon 
 their emancipation from slaver}^ 
 
 Walter Raleigh Vaughan". 
 Passing from a discussion of the right of American freedmen to 
 compensation, it would be natural to inquire wherein savage gov- 
 ernments, or half civilized, have had to pay tribute for impressing 
 Americans into servitude; but statistics on such points have been 
 covered in a way to prevent scrutiny, or the departmental officers 
 at Washington have been reluctant to tell what they know in a way 
 
ADDENDA. 
 
 143 
 
 that may be to the interest of the negro. At least the officials of 
 state have been reh^ctant to give facts which might be made avail- 
 able for the behoof of old slaves. A letter was addressed to Secre- 
 tar}^ Blaine from the office of the Omaha Daily Democrat, under 
 date of August 18, 1890, in which the following request was made: 
 
 ^'It is the wish of this paper to learn officially the measure and 
 detail of damages which may have been paid, in any manner, to 
 American citizens or seamen in consequence of seizure and impris- 
 onment byforeign governments, or their subjection to servitude by 
 such governments, under any pretense whatever. The case of 
 Americans held in Tripoli, for whose release the expedition under 
 Stephen Decatur was fitted out, is perhaps the most noteworthy 
 and important. What indemnity was paid, how distributed, and 
 to whom? Any other instances of seizure of Americans, for what 
 cause, how long held, and the circumstances of indemnity, will be 
 gladly received, to be used for public purposes. 
 
 Imagine the surprise experienced to receive such an answer as 
 the following, which is inserted in full: 
 
 Department of State, ) 
 Washington, September, 9, 1890. ) 
 W. R. Van glian, Esquire, Editor of the Omaha Democrat, Omaha, Neb. 
 
 Sir: Adverting to so much of your letter of the 18th ultimo as has ref- 
 erence to the sums paid by the United States in certain cases, I have now to 
 inform you that you will doubtless find the desired information in senate 
 executive document No. 38, XLIVth congress, second session, being a 
 "statement of appropriations and expenditures, civil and miscellaneous, 
 of the Department of State from March 4, 1789, to June 30, 1876 " I am, sir, 
 your obedient servant, William F. Wharton, 
 
 Acting Secretary. 
 
 Imagine the disgust of the author hereof to find that the 
 volume referred to contained no reference to the Decatur expedi- 
 tion whatever. Perhaps the expenditure was neither civil nor 
 miscellaneous." But there was an indemnity paid, and the 
 amount was by no means trivial. A nation that asks iudemnity 
 should pay indemnity where due. It is due to the old slaves oi 
 the South. 
 
 About the close of the eighteenth century American merchant 
 vessels plying the waters of the Mediterranean were annoyed by 
 the incursions of Moorish pirates and predatory crews who robbed 
 cargoes, burned trading ships and carried American seamen into 
 captivity where they were sold as slaves. Commodore Stephen 
 Decatur, with a fleet of vessels, was dispatched to the Barbary 
 States to release the enslaved seamen and demand indemnity. The 
 flagship of the squadron, the Philadelphia, grounded in the harbor 
 of Tripoli and to prevent her falling into the hands of the enemy 
 she was burned by her escaping crew. Decatur's forces began a 
 bombardment which terminated by the authorities of Tripoli mak- 
 ing terms. They surrendered all captives in their possession and 
 paid an indemnity to the men who had been enslaved, to the mer- 
 chants whose property had been destroyed and to the Government 
 for the sacrifice of a valuable war steamer. Diligent inquiry at 
 Washington has not been successful in learning the amount of 
 
144 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 the indemnity paid by Tripoli or the names of the recipients of the 
 bounty. 
 
 For the purpose of showing a want of feeling on the part of 
 many persons at the South toward old slaves, though the number 
 is only a small minority of the entire population, a single instance 
 may be produced in this connection. The author sent postal cards 
 to the mayors and postmasters of several hundreds of Southern 
 cities and towns, making inquiry as to the *^most reliable and » 
 intelligent negroes^' of the respective localities whither the inquir- 
 ies were sent. From a prominent point in Florida the information 
 Avas imparted that Henry Hutchinson and William E. Jones might 
 be reckoned among the most intelligent class, with the additional 
 information that both gentlemen were small merchants." But 
 the statement was coupled with the gratuitous slur that there 
 Sire no7ie 'reViMe/ " Such a feeling is not honorable to the men 
 of the South. It constitutes an impediment to the perfect estab- 
 lishment of peace and good will between the races which compose 
 the Southern population, and which is essential to the material 
 development of that part of our common country. . It is due, how- 
 ever, to the people of the South to say that of the hundreds 
 of inquiries made only three replies were similar to the case 
 stated above, which reflected upon the general character of the 
 negro as a citizen and man of business. It is humiliating to add 
 that all three of the letters which contained reflections upon the 
 negroes as a class of people came from Government officials, 
 appointed to office by an administration which poses as the dis- 
 tinctive supporter and advocate of the recently emancipated race. 
 
 Very few persons, aside from an intensely philanthropic class 
 of people which is circumscribed in numbers and influence, can 
 have an idea of the rebuffs which a person meets in undertaking a 
 great work of humanity. The anti-slavery agitation of half a cen- 
 tury ago must have made such stout hearts as those of William 
 Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Dr. Bailey, Horace Greeley, 
 Gerritt Smith, John Greenleaf Whittier and scores of others to 
 quake when they encountered the storm of adverse criticism to 
 which their efforts in the cause of humanity gave rise. But they 
 had blazed a path through the dark forest of prejudice and super- 
 stition which they trod until it became the highway of justice and 
 God-given right. Their work became easy enough when it was 
 taken up by a great political organization, thus bringing to their 
 aid the forces of half the voting strength of a score of States, 
 intensified by the constant appeals of tens of thousands of men 
 who hoped to ride into office and local power by means of party 
 success. It is to be hoped that the grant of pensions to the old 
 slaves of this land will be accomplished without disturbing the 
 harmony of party lines. But if the blindness of party infatuation 
 refuses the right, for the sake of party, the work must and will 
 go on until success is achieved by riding an existing party to the 
 death and bringing to the front a new hope, upon the banner 
 whereof the motto of justice shall be emblazoned in letters of light 
 and life. 
 
145 
 
 It may not be improper at this stage of the pending discussion 
 to say that every effort to pave the way for assistance in the good 
 work in hand has been made, and, while a degree of success has 
 been achieved, the majority of people abundantly able to help for- 
 ward the appeal in behalf of the ex-slaves of our Union have 
 either excused themselves from helping the cause, or have ignored 
 the appeal addressed to them altogether. Beginning at the point 
 of highest authority in temporal affairs, it was thought that the 
 moral aid and encouragement of the ruler of a people which pro- 
 duced a Wilberforce, to battle for the suppression of the slave 
 trade, might be invoked in behalf of the relicts of a slavery planted 
 on American soil by means of British cupidity. So the queen of 
 Britain was asked to help forward the work in hand, through a 
 communication addressed to her majesty from Omaha, Neb., 
 immediately after the publication of the first edition of 
 ^^Vaughan^s Freedmen's Pension Bill " and appeal, in pamphlet 
 book form. Accompanying a copy of the work mailed to her 
 address the following letter was written to Queen Victoria from 
 the office of the Omaha Daily Democrat, in the summer of 3 890: 
 To Her Majesty, Victoria, Queen of the Kingdom of Great Britain and 
 
 Ireland, Windsor Castle, near London, England. 
 May it Please Your Gracious Majesty: 
 
 I send you to-day, by mail, a copy of a small volume which I have pre- 
 pared, entitled " Vaughan's Freedman's Pension Bill, or a Plea for the Old 
 Slave." 
 
 If your Majesty will have the kindness to peruse the volume I have the 
 honor to mail to your address, you will find a copy of the bill I have had 
 introduced in the American Congress, asking that pensions be granted to 
 emancipated slaves. As your country had control of this at the time the 
 institution of African slavery was introduced on this soil, I hope,, and believe, 
 you will find the SMbject treated by me of possible interest to you and the 
 people of your great kingdom. As I desire to place a copy of my publication 
 in the hands of every Anglo-Saxon citizen, showing to them that a wrong of 
 ages is asked to be righted; and as Great Britain and the United States are 
 alike responsible for the wrong committed, and as I am personally unable to 
 distribute this small work over the States and through your kingdom, and 
 having faith in your well known philanthrophic disposition, I have esteemed 
 it possible you might wish to lend your assistance in the distribution. 
 
 I shall feel proud, in the next edition, to give recognition of any contri- 
 bution that may be made, or any article that may be prepared, with a view of 
 aiding the once enslaved Eegro. I trust and beg that your Majesty will take 
 time to read the book sent you before forming an opinion adversely to my 
 undertaking. I have spent thousands of dollars in this effort already, and 
 eight millions of American negroes feel very grateful to me, and those help- 
 ing me, so that neither expense to myself nor my country will induce me to 
 abandon the great cause I have voluntarily espoused. 
 
 A response to my appeal from one so good and great as your Majesty 
 will be most religiously esteemed. 
 
 I have the honor to be, most humbly and obediently yours, 
 
 Walter R. Vaughan. 
 
 It will readily appear to the candid reader that the appeal to the 
 British Queen was justly and fairly taken, and that a recognition of 
 the work which the author has espoused might reasonably have 
 been expected. But such has not been the fact, her Majesty may 
 not have approved of slave emancipation within these States. It is 
 surely true that her people, of a by-gone era, enforced slavery upon 
 the colonies, which then yielded ready recognition of the British 
 
146 
 
 ADDEKDA. 
 
 Crown as the supreme head of their established government. It 
 was hoped that the reigning Monarch of the British Islands re- 
 joiced with Americans upon the emancipation of a slavery which 
 the parental government had inflicted upon an unwilling people. 
 But it seems that the head of the English Government is now as 
 selfishly complaisant of past errors as her forefathers were when 
 they planted negro slavery upon the colonies of North America 
 against the protest of her colonial subjects. When we stop to 
 reflect upon the unnatural and unchristian conduct of the English 
 rulers toward their Irish inhabitancy it is sensibly appreciable why 
 they should shut their ears against a just statement of their former 
 barbarity exercised in this land, and refuse to help toward man- 
 hood a race of men they once degraded below the brutes of the 
 swineherd and the wild beasts of ferocious nature. It may be surpris- 
 ing, but it is nevertheless true, that the English Crown and the titled 
 nobility of that country has never yet followed in a train of thought 
 that had its origin with the democratic tendency of the United 
 States or of any other republican form of government. In the 
 days of the American rebellion the potentates of Great Britain 
 would readily have sided with the South had it not been that the 
 establishment of the Confederacy might have continued the suprem- 
 acy of slavery upon American soil, — an idea which English lord- 
 ship rejected as soon as the traffic in human merchandise was 
 made unpopular, and hence not profitable to British merchantmen 
 previously engaged in the slave trade. When the profit of stealing 
 men and woman from Africa and reducing them to bondage within 
 American territorial jurisdiction ceased to be a safe and prudent 
 venture it was quite easy for lordly nabobism to follow in the 
 footsteps of Wilberforce and other friends of humanity who berated 
 the institution of slavery because of its innate error and not on 
 account of methods of expediency. 
 
 When Mason and Slidell were sent to Europe during the 
 War of the Eebellion, in the hope of inducing such powerful 
 States as Great Britian and France to give recognition to South- 
 ern independence, it was found by these envoys that the fatal 
 impediment in the direction of a successful mission consisted 
 in the fact that public sentiment, gaining force gradually from 
 the masses to the aristocracy, was intensely anti-slavery; and 
 unless the peculiar institution should be immediately or gradually 
 abolished, the hope of ultimate recognition was nearly or quite 
 impossible. Under date of London, November 4, 1862, Mr. Mason 
 informed Mr. Judah P. Benjamin, Secretary of State for the Con- 
 federate Government, that he found Lord Palmerston implacable 
 upon the subject of the slave trade (and of course incidentally of 
 slavery itself); and in reply to a very friendly suggestion from that 
 statesman Mr. Mason had made the statement: '^That this condi 
 tion of society (slavery) was one with which, in our opinion, tht 
 destinies of the South were indissolubly connected. Other envoys 
 sent by the Confederacy to Europe appear to have encountered a 
 strong undercurrent of anti-slavery feeling among the masses 
 which was gradually felt in Government circles. Edwin De Leon, 
 a man of erudition and persuasive logic, was forced to tell Mr. 
 
147 
 
 Benjamin^ in a letter from Paris, bearing date of June 19, 18G3, 
 that he had encountered a sentiment that was impregnable, and 
 this sentiment consisted in the expressions repeated over and 
 over again by persons connected with the Government and enjoy- 
 ing the confidence of the Emperor — ^ France can not take the lead 
 in acknowledging the Southern Confederacy without some promise 
 for prospective emancipation/" Further on^ in the same commu- 
 nication, after detailing the opinions of many French statesmen 
 and scholars, including Count de Lesseps, the wonderful civil 
 engineer of the world, Mr. De Leon said: " It is vain to tell them 
 (French scholars and statesmen) how utterly impracticable such a 
 proposition (slave emancipation) must be, and that Southern peo- 
 ple never would consent to purchase recognition at the price of 
 such a concession of wrong doing as it would imply." 
 
 It is sad to be obliged to antagonize the opinion of so eminent 
 a man as Edwin De Leon, for he w^as a great man, but the truth 
 must be told in the interest of a work which overlaps all the 
 greatness of the great w^ork of history. Truth and justice must 
 prevail. At the same time Mr. De Leon was doing his utmost to 
 sustain the tottering slave power, and while Slidell and Mason were 
 working with might and main to secure the recognition of Euro- 
 pean governments in behalf of the seceding States, which sought 
 to establish a separate government from that wrought in the Rev- 
 olutionary period, other forces were at work to circumvent the 
 work of the seceders and their envoys sent abroad. The anti- 
 slavery sentiments of William Wilberforce and those who thought 
 with him that personal liberty was the natural condition of all 
 mankind had taken deep root in the feelings of statesmen repre- 
 senting the work of civilization throughout the world. Among 
 other appeals made by Southern men to persons of high renown in 
 Church and State throughout all Europe, it is proper to say that 
 Jefferson Davis addressed a letter directly to His Holiness Pope 
 Pius IX., of Rome, in which his intercession was sought through 
 the powerful ecclesiastical organization which the Pope represents 
 throughout the civilized and religious world. The letter of Mr. 
 Davis to His Holiness was presented through Mr. A. Dudley Mann, 
 who bore credentials from ^^The Southern Independence Associa- 
 tion of London," and an address in which the following significant 
 passage appeared: 
 
 '^^This Association will also, in particular, steadily but kindly 
 represent to the Southern States that recognition by Europe must 
 necessarily lead to a revision of the system of servile labor unhap- 
 pily bequeathed to them by England, in accordance with the spirit 
 of the age, so as to combine the gradual extinction of slavery, 
 with the preservation of property, the maintenance of the civil 
 polity of the true civilization of the negro race." 
 
 The sentiment quoted above did not suit the sensibilities of 
 Mr. Mann, and in communicating the address of the Southern 
 Independence Association to Mr. Benjamin, he took occasion to 
 dissent from the idea of a gradual extinction of slavery," coupled 
 with a ^^preservation of property," and he couched his expression 
 of dissent in these words: 
 
148 
 
 ADDEKDA. 
 
 ^^It is lamentable to perceive that onr professed, and, as I am 
 Inclined to believe, well-disposed friends have committed them- 
 selves to the keeping up of an agitation against the cherished 
 institution of the States composing our Confederacy, even after 
 our recognition/^ 
 
 The communication to Mr. Benjamin last above referred to was 
 transmitted by Mr. Mann from London January 29, 1864. So it 
 appears that within a little more than a year of the collapse of the 
 Confederacy the idea was still entertained in high quarters that the 
 cherished institution of the States composing the Confederacy" 
 might be maintained as the chief corner-stone of the building of a 
 new republic. But the persons to whom Southern agents made 
 their appeal did not take kindly to that view. His Holiness, Pope 
 Pius IX., while receiving Mr. Davis' letter of appeal in kindly 
 terms, took occasion to institute an inquiry whether it might not 
 be judicious for the Confederates to consent to gradual emancipa- 
 tion. According to the report of Special Envoy Slidell at his first 
 interview with the French Emperor, in July, 1862, Napoleon III. 
 asked him whether we anticipated any difficulty from our 
 slaves. ''^ 
 
 So it appears, from the most reliable data that can be gathered 
 from authentic sources, the impediment which stood in the way of 
 a successful establishment of the Southern Confederacy upon a firm 
 and enduring basis, which would have received the instant recog- 
 nition of the most powerful of European States, was the existence 
 of the unnatural institution of human slavery as the foundation of 
 its productive field of labor. In the process of time the men of the 
 South, high in the authority of the Confederacy, came to view the 
 possibility of slavery being the loadstone which would attract the 
 newly formed system of government upon the inevitable rock of 
 failure. Toward the close of the career of the Confederacy a 
 wholesale emancipation of slaves was seriously considered as a 
 necessity involving the only hope of future existence and recogni- 
 tion by important European powers. It is known that in the last 
 days of the Confederacy Mr. Duncan F. Kenner, of New Orleans, 
 was sent as a special envoy to Europe, with possible authority of 
 giving a guarantee of emancipation. He had served in the Confed- 
 erate Congress, and had become satisfied that '^it was impos- 
 sible to prosecute the war to a successful issue without a rec- 
 ognition of the Confederacy by at least one of the maritime 
 powers of western Europe, into the ports of which the South- 
 ern States might carry their prizes, make repairs, and get 
 supplies. He was also satisfied that they would never secure recog- 
 nition or any substantial aid so long as the foundations of their 
 projected new empire rested on slavery/' At least, Hon. John 
 Bigelow has made this emphatic declaration in the columns of the 
 Century Magazine. (See May number, 1891.) Mr. Kenner sailed 
 from New York in the spring of 1865, in a British steamer, hav- 
 ing passed through the Confederate outposts and the Union lines 
 without his identity becoming known. He had interviews with 
 Lord Palmerston in England, and with the Emperor Napoleon at 
 Paris, to whom he unfolded his plans of recognition by the British 
 
ADDENDA. 
 
 149 
 
 and French Governments, upon emancipation being proclaimed by 
 the President of the Southern Confederacy. While his negotia- 
 tions abroad were pending, intelligence of Sherraan^s successful 
 march to the sea, and of the capitulation of Gen. Joseph E. John- 
 ston, was carried to Europe, which dashed to earth the last hope of 
 the Confederacy. The statements concerning the mission of Mr. 
 Kenner abroad, and of the contemplated plan of emancipation by 
 the South, have been confirmed in a communication written by 
 Mr. Ben. C. Truman to the New York Times of July 24, 1890, in 
 which that gentleman credits the late Robert Toombs, of Georgia 
 (the man once made famous by his declaration that he expected to 
 see the day when he would be able to call the roll of his slaves 
 from the monument on Bunker Hill), with the expression of his 
 belief that if the South had made the abolition of slavery a part 
 of its policy it would have had England and France on its side, 
 and the Confederacy would have succeeded. There prevails also a 
 well defined rumor that in the closing days of the Confederate 
 Congress at Eichmond, a heated discussion respecting negro man- 
 umission took place, growing out of a communication submitted 
 to that body by Mr. Jefferson Davis. If the rumor is authentic 
 the paper which gave rise to the debate was probably connected 
 with the secret mission abroad of Mr. Duncan F. Keuner. But 
 the records of the last discussions in the Confederate Congress 
 are imperfect, and record testimony of many events are not now 
 available. 
 
 The fact, however, is not now seriously questioned that the 
 Southern people, or at least those who held high political positions, 
 had arrived at the conclusion, in the spring of 1865, that their 
 hope of independent governmental sovereignty could only be 
 secured by means of slavery emancipation. With such knowledge, 
 the people of the great North ought to be impressed with a true 
 sensibility of the debt that is due to the old slaves, because of the 
 link they formed in preventing a severance of the States of the 
 union. Had the point been reached during the era of hostilities 
 when the South would have welcomed the negroes of ante-bellum 
 days to be a free people, it is probable that no power on earth 
 could have prevented the seceding States from the accomplish- 
 ment of their political independence. In addition, then, to being 
 the instrumentality whereby our glorious republic became, indeed, 
 a free people, no person in all this broad land being restrained of 
 personal liberty, except for the punishment of crime whereof the 
 offending party may have been duly convicted in a court of justice, 
 the negro race may justly lay claim to the distinction of affording 
 the general Government the means of bringing together in the 
 family of States all the constitutional elements of our diversified 
 nationality. States are no longer dissevered and belligerent, but 
 all are happily united, under one flag, in a bond of amity and union 
 which the combined armies and navies of the world may not pre- 
 vail against with success. That such a boon has been brought 
 about through the agency of negro freemen once held in servitude, 
 certainly entitles that race to a degree of compensation for the 
 
150 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 chains of slavery which they were so recently obliged to endure in 
 pursuance of unjust and repressive laws. 
 
 In seeking to interest persons of exalted stations in the plan for 
 the amelioration of ex-slaves the work has been pursued in a way 
 to include men of financial standing and business influence, within 
 the scope of those who might feel generously inclined to favor a 
 noble and praiseworthy undertaking. While appeals have been 
 made abroad, the general line of communication has been confined 
 to men and women of well known generosity within the United 
 States. In the main, responses to appeals and personal solicita- 
 tion have not lent that degree of encouragement which was hoped 
 for and desired. But no grand aim in life should be silenced 
 because first advances do not meet with encouragement. In fact, 
 rebuffs ought, generally, to excite fresh effort and persistent appli- 
 cation, in order that public sympathy and attention may be 
 finally aroused. Among those who were solicited to give a candid 
 consideration, and, possibly, personal aid, to the advancement of 
 Vaughan's Freedmen's pension bill and appeal, it may be proper 
 to mention the case of the great banker and financier, Henry 
 Clews, because the note of Mr. Clews brings into view a line of 
 opposition to the work in hand which must be calmly and consid- 
 erately combatted, or it will open the way for a strong prejudice 
 which ought not to prevail in the prosecution of any generous and 
 benevolent object having in view the general advancement of the 
 human race. Prejudice is not easily overcome. In handing Mr. 
 Clews a copy of the first edition of this little book he, with others, 
 was addressed as follows: 
 
 Knowing your philanthropy and reputation for justice in 
 every movement that embraces humanity, I esteemed it possible 
 that you might feel inclined to aid in the distribution of an argu- 
 ment solely designed in the interest of humanity. 
 
 It will be a pleasure to acknowledge in the next edition any 
 funds or articles designed to aid me in my work for the negro. I 
 trust and beg that you will read the book mailed to your address 
 by me before coming to a conclusion adversely to my undertaking. 
 I have spent thousands of dollars in the effort to do justice to a class 
 of our people embracing eight millions of our population. These 
 people feel grateful to me for the effort already made, but the 
 mass of them are powerless to aid in a work in which they have an 
 abiding interest . Neither cost to myself or the Government will 
 induce me to abandon a just cause. If you feel inclined to assist 
 in a worthy undertaking your kindly aid will be gratefully appre- 
 ciated and acknowledged. 
 
 A reply to my letter from a person known to entertain the 
 largest and most liberal sentiments of humanity will be thankfully 
 acknowledged by Yours very truly, 
 
 W. E. Vaughan." 
 In response to the foregoing appeal Mr. Clews kindly gave the 
 matter in hand his early attention, though not indorsing the effort 
 in view, as may be seen by the full text of his letter, which is given 
 below: 
 
ADDEJ^DA. 
 
 151 
 
 Banking House of Henry Clews & Co., / 
 New York, January 3, 1891. f 
 
 W. R. Vaughan, Esq., Omaha, Neh. 
 
 Dear Sir: I have your favor of the 27th ult., also the pamphlet men- 
 tioned. It will give me pleasure to read it, I am sure. I do not think, how. 
 ever, I can be induced to favor the scheme proposed, for the reason that the 
 pensions now paid by the Government reach |120,000,000 per annum — a sum 
 entirely too large for the good ©f the country, and it certainly does not admit 
 of being increased for any purpose whatsoever. Much obliged to you for 
 thinking of me. Yours very truly, 
 
 Henry Clews. 
 
 The view taken by Mr. Clews brings up a question that is just 
 now provoking a great deal of attention in the halls of legislation, 
 in the columns of the public press, and in the ordinary channels of 
 conversation and discussion running through all the avenues of 
 society. The pension list as now administered is truly a plague 
 spot in the affairs of Cxovernment, for the reason that millions of 
 money are annually distributed in quarters where no shadow of 
 right exists, while many meritorious claimants are awaiting the 
 adjudication of cases that have been delayed months and years 
 without sense or reason. A complete review of the affairs of the 
 pension office is sadly needed, and it will certainly open a field for 
 reform that will tax the energy and ability of cautious statesmen. 
 But because military pensions have become a source of great evil 
 and are calling aloud for the work of the true reformer it does not 
 follow that the Government should hesitate to do ample justice to 
 its subjects which were held in heartless bondage for a long, dark 
 period of years, through no fault of their own and by means of 
 a false and vicious system of political economy. A solvent debtor 
 in private life could hardly expect immunity against the payment 
 of a fair and honest claim against him on the ground that he had 
 paid a dozen other claims which were not justly chargeable against 
 him. Neither can a great Government refuse to pay an honest 
 indemnity due to old slaves on the ground that an exorbitant sum 
 is now annually exacted for military pensions, a part of Avhich may 
 be extortionate and improper. 
 
 At a recent meeting of school teachers held in an Eastern State 
 the subject was discussed of providing a State pension for persons 
 who have devoted their lives to the work of education, after they 
 may have severally served thirty years in the educational field. 
 The proposition has given rise to some newspaper comment and 
 the general tenor of the view taken by the public press has not 
 been favorable to the policy proposed to be established. The 
 adverse argument has covered a wide range, but the substantial 
 reasons assigned in antagonism to the innovation have been that 
 teachers have usually received good rates of compensation for 
 their services, and have had opportunities to accumulate property 
 sufficient to provide for their wants in declining years above that 
 garnered in other useful occupations. There is no more reason 
 why an aged and faithful teacher should be supported at public 
 expense in old age, under authority of law, than that similar pro- 
 vision should be made for aged clergymen, phj^sicians, mechanics 
 or tillers of the soil whose labors in life have redounded to the 
 
152 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 general welfare as well as to their personal profit. It was possibly 
 an error of opinion that primarily suggested the expediency of 
 retiring judges of the Federal courts, after they arrived at a cer- 
 tain mature age and had served a stipulated term upon the bench, 
 upon an annuity during the residue of their natural lives. The 
 same suggestion may be indulged touching the provision which 
 Congress has made for the benefit of retired officers of the Federal 
 army, and concerning the pensional provision fixed by law for the 
 comfort of widows of certain distinguished soldiers and civilians. 
 While the aggregate amount so paid annually is comparatively 
 unimportant, it may be feared that the way has been prepared for 
 m ikiag our G-overnmeiit some day a vast eleemosynary institution, 
 a feature of which will be the voting of prodigious sums of money 
 into the pockets of persons who have managed to place themselves 
 in the position of retainers of the nation. 
 
 This slight digression from the direct advocacy of the Vaughan 
 Freedmen's Pension Bill has not been indulged in because of a 
 design to antagonize any class of pensions which Congress may feel 
 inclined to enact into statutory form, but with a view of calling at- 
 tention to the fact that all kinds of pensions which have heretofore 
 been allowed to public defenders, or to eminent citizens of the coun- 
 try, have consisted in gratuities which the pleasure of Congress has 
 voted to persons worthy of special assistance on account of services 
 rendered to the Government and to the people, either in times of 
 military carnage or in the highest lines of civic eminence. The 
 case of the negroes who have been relieved from unwilling servi- 
 tude is vastly different from soldiers or statesmen who have 
 performed meritorious service in the field or in civil life. The 
 negro claim is one of indemnity for injuries suffered, while the 
 others have been granted special compensation for duties imposed 
 and properly performed. Perhaps the great claim now asserted in 
 behalf of the negro race ought not to liave been denominated a 
 pension. It has been so called because all classes of direct assist- 
 ance voted by the representatives of the Government, to be paid 
 in monthly, annual or periodical sums of money, have been 
 denominated pensions in common parlance. But the claim now 
 pressed is a bounden duty which the Government owes, and in 
 providing for its liquidation the Congress is not asked to grant 
 a gratuity but to pay a debt. No volume of money that might be 
 poured out at the feet of the old slaves would compensate the 
 negro race for the deep wrong they have endured. In making a 
 reasonable and prudent demand, graduated so that those who 
 endured the heat and burden of the dominion of slavery may be fairly 
 fed and clothed in their declining years, while the young genera- 
 tion will obtain a recognition that will remind them of the horrors 
 which their parents suffered; the best method is presented con- 
 sistent with the ability of the Government to discharge its duty 
 and one which the old slave will accept with patient feeling and 
 thankful heart. 
 
ADDENDA. 153 
 
 In closing this branch of appeal it may be right to ask whether the liberty 
 of the negro race, enjoyed by them in the United States for more than a 
 quarter of a century, has demonstrated the race to merit the requiting of the 
 great debt which our Government owes to them? This interrogation may be 
 suitably answered by the reproduction of part of an able communication 
 found in the columns of the Christian Recorder, published at 631 Pine 
 street, Philadelphia, April 30, 1891, and written by General J. S. Clarkson, 
 late assistant Postmaster General, and one of the aolest journalists to be 
 found in the United States. The article appears to have been a selection from 
 another newspaper, but it is made use of, partially, in the form which the 
 Recorder presents it, as follows : 
 
 " One of the best and most encouraging signs, to me, for the final vindica- 
 tion and complete liberty of the colored people is the mighty strength in 
 which they are arising, not only to protect themselves in all their rights, but 
 to put out their hands in more than human and almost divine sympathy 
 for human suffering and distress wherever it exists. 
 
 " The black race is the sympathetic race of the world. It never sees sor- 
 row without seeming to share in it. It never sees distress without wanting 
 to go to its help. It never sees tyranny without wanting to fight it. Its 
 heart is broad and warm, and keenly sensitive to everything needing succor 
 or sympathy. . . . 
 
 "I look with admiration upon a race rising out of the dust and coming up 
 to the average intelligence of the black people of America to-day. Recent 
 visits to the South, and close and careful examination have shown me that 
 there are very few colored people under 30 years of age who can not read and 
 write. I found the old people, the negroes of war days, filled with philosophy 
 and kindness, holding no resentment to the South for the days of slavery. 
 
 . . . I saw, in scores of cabins, many young people learning to read 
 from the Bible. 
 
 " The black race is no more capable of being suppressed and no more in 
 danger of being degraded back into slavery, or a servile peasantry, than were 
 the American people in the Revolution ; and to-day the blacks of America 
 twice outnumber the American people who fought the War of the Revolution. 
 Man may delay the fulfillment of human nature or divine purpose of Gov- 
 ernment, but he can not for very long. The progress of the black race in 
 America may be a little delayed but it can never be stopped. 
 
 " In the humanity of a race there is something higher than politics. All 
 that is noble in American citizenship, and all that is sweet aad dear in human 
 rights, are involved in it." 
 
 It is in behalf of those citizens who have endured the bitterest wrongs of 
 oppression that an appeal is now made, asking that the right thinking people 
 of every race will do a reasonable part towards lifting the stain of injustice 
 from the escutcheon of the American name and character. 
 
 A SERIOUS VIEW. 
 
 The author of this work is in no sense an alarmist, and in the propagation 
 of a meritorious work it is important that reason, rather than impulse, should 
 have sway under any and all circumstances. But the white citizens of the 
 United States ought not to shut their eyes to the fact that the black race 
 within these States is multiplying more rapidly, in a relative sense, than the 
 white race. When the freedom of the manumitted slaves was confirmed by 
 an amendment to the Federal Constitution in 1865, the number so set at liberty 
 was a fraction below 5,000,000 people. The number of free blacks in all the 
 States prior to emancipation was a very small percentage of the entire race in 
 this country. After the lapse of a quarter of a century the census of last 
 year shows, or will show when complete in detail, that the number of 
 negroes exceeds eight millions of people. Here is a race increase of quite 50 
 per cent, in two and one-half decades, while the total increase of population 
 has not increased more than 25 per cent. It follows that the blacks of our 
 land are generating their species with double the rapidity that the whites are 
 doing. Under such conditions it becomes important that future harmony 
 between the races shall be supported and sustained by a generous and humane 
 treatment while the colored people constitute the weaker and more dependent 
 race. 
 
154 
 
 In order that the idea here advanced may be the better appreciated, let us 
 have reference to a few official tigures. The census of 1870 showed the total 
 number of the white population of all the States and Territories to be 33,589,377 
 souls. In 1880 this white population had increased to 43,402,970 persons', or 
 an augmentation of less than thirty per cent. A complete exhibit of the cen- 
 sus of 1890 will demonstrate that the relative increase of the white population 
 has materially declined. 
 
 Now, contrast this race exhibit by that made by the negro population. In 
 1870 there were 4,880,009 people of color in all the States and Territories. In 
 1880 the negro citizenship of our country had increased to 6,580,793 souls, or 
 a rate of thirty-five per cent. Thus the relative increase of blacks was five 
 per cent, greater on the part of blacks than whites. In the last ten years this 
 ratio has been vastly accelerated in favor of the negro population. 
 
 The total population of eight States, whites and blacks, in 1890, contrasted 
 with 1880, is as follow^s : 
 
 1890. 1880. 
 
 Alabama 1,513,017 1,263,288 
 
 Florida 39 ',422 269,690 
 
 Georg-la 1 ,837,353 1,542,029 
 
 Louisiana 1,118,587 938,609 
 
 Mississippi - 1,289,600 1,129,689 
 
 North Carolina » 1,617,947 1,398,5.9 
 
 South Carolina ... 1,161 ,149 995,437 
 
 Virginia 1,655,980 1,512,474 
 
 Total 10,575,055 9,048,735 
 
 It will be observed that the total population of the eight States above 
 noted increased a little less than seventeen per cent, in ten years. The States 
 constitute that portion of the South where the negro population has its great- 
 est strength. In three of the States the negro is in a tiumerical majority. In 
 those States statistics show that his relative increase between 1870 and 1880 
 was vastly greater than the white increase. The small percentage of total 
 increase in the last ten years leaves a natural deduction that the black man 
 has had the greater part of the added population, which has been the natural 
 production of his species, while the white race has had the advantage of a 
 large northern and foreign immigration. 
 
 The study of this branch of a scientific question is of vital interest, for it 
 leads to the conclusion that in the warm latitude of the Gulf States the negroes 
 will outgrow the white people with surprising strides. What, then, shall be 
 lone to keep the races in harmony ? Manifestly the schewe of an enforced 
 exodus of the negroes to a foreign clime is too chimeri^uJ be seriously con- 
 sidered. Moreover, the South needs the negro labo., ^iid can have it in the 
 future as in the past. But to prevent friction between the races a measure of 
 such justice should be meted out to the negro as will satisfy him that he is 
 among his friends. The Vaughan Pension Bill is the one above all others that 
 will produce harmony of sentiment. It is not in force laws, nor in election 
 excitement, nor in any measure that will strain the relations between the 
 whiles and blacks, that will produce perfect contentment and good will. Let 
 justice and right be done and concord will prevail The Vaughan Pension 
 Bill is both just and right. 
 
 A SOUTHERN VIEW. 
 
 The cartoon presented on the first page (or cover) is intended to delineate 
 an idea. Prior to the War of the Rebellion a considerable preponderance of 
 those articles of export which enabled the people of the United States to 
 maintain a valuable trade with foreign nations were articles of Southern pro- 
 duction and were the fruits of slave labor. The cotton, the tobacco, the rice 
 and very many lesser articles raised from the soil, constituted such an import- 
 ant part of American exports, that without them a system of exchanges could 
 not have been maintained abroad, and those foreign wares upon which our 
 Government revenue was raised would have sought other markets instead of 
 coming to ours. But the vessels laden with foreign goods which came 
 hither, induced by the rich fruits of Southern plantations, enabled our Fed- 
 eral Go"^ernmant to levy a moderate tariff and thus fill the coffers of the 
 nation with abundant revenues. It is not too much to say that the slave 
 labor of Southern plantations provided the maximum portion of the revenue 
 
ADDENDA. 
 
 155 
 
 which has accomplished the vast work which the Government at TTashing- 
 ton has carried forward in more than a century of its existence. 
 
 After three-C[uarters of a century of raising revenue on the production of 
 slave labor, thewar came and the slave went free. One of the consequences 
 of that war is an enormous pension list, of more than $130,000,000 annually, 
 not one dollar of which goes f:o a soldier who fought under the banner of the 
 South. But the South is taxed alike with the ZS orth to pay that immense 
 sum. 3Ioreover, the South is now compelled to maintain those old and 
 decrepid negroes who have been freed in their midst, as well as to do its full 
 share in proviiiing pensions for the sick and wounded men at the Xorth 
 whose services in the Union ranks made the slave a free man. The passage 
 of the Vaughan measure would relieve the wants of the freedmen, and the 
 money so distributed would do much toward enriching the Southern section. 
 All classes would be benefited by the passage of ^a tardy act of justice 
 which would liberate many an aged negro "from Southern almshouses, 
 enabling them to live in comfort, and at the same time the taxpayers would 
 be relieved from the necessity of contributing to their support. 
 
 The artist has illustrated as best he could'the old negro raising the crops 
 out of which the Government derived her revenue, and then turnins; him out 
 to starve in his old age, and forcing him to become a burden upon the tax- 
 payers, who are also faxed to support the men of the North suffering from 
 wounds and diseases contracted in setting the negroes free. The picture is a 
 peculiar one, but it goes to the heart of Ihe que'stion of doing justice to the 
 slaves of olden days. 
 
 LABORS OF THE ArTHOR. 
 
 During the months of April and May, 1S91, the writer visited Chicago and 
 other cities with a view of conferring with intelligent citizens touching the 
 spirit of the proposed Old Slave Pension Law, and particularly with a desire 
 and purpose of learning how the proposition to grant pensions to former 
 slaves would be received among thinking and educated men. At the begin- 
 ning it was difficult to get the attention of the best elements of either white or 
 black people. Persistence, however, wrought wonders, and the result was 
 one meeting for public discussion. The attendance was not great, but it con- 
 sisted of thinking people. The seed of a great idea was planted and it soon 
 produced fruit. As the immortal Bryant wrote: 
 
 " Truth crushed to earth will rise again : 
 The eternal years of God are hers." 
 
 The prophetic words of poesy appeared to be true in this instance, for the 
 result of the first public discussion was an enthusiastic audience, assembled 
 April 26. 1S91, in Lincoln Hall, at the request of Dr. J. H. Magee, the cult- 
 ured and able editor of the Chicago w-otherliood, and other able representa- 
 tives of the colored race, at which a fair percentage of white persons were 
 present, Including several representatives of the Chicago press. Of course 
 W. R. Vaughan, the author, made the prinripal address, explaining and 
 exp">unling his theories; but there was other speaking, and the result of the 
 meeting was a commendable understanding of the broad purpose which the 
 author has in view, and a spirit of determination manifested to give the theory 
 of ex-slave pension not only a fair trial but a courageous support before the 
 people and in the halls of Congress. As a fair expression of the Lincoln 
 Hall meeting, the following report is extracted from the columns of the Chi- 
 cago I'lf^y'-Oceo.n of Monday morning, April 27, 1S9L Other papers of the 
 citv — most, if not all. of them — gave elaborate reports of the meeting and 
 couched their statements in temperate, if not decidedly in friendly terms. 
 But the report of the Inter-Ocfan will give a fair idea of what was done and 
 said, and attention is therefore asked to it: 
 
 " You can't elevate your race so long as you feel that you owe somebody, 
 when they really owe you something.'" 
 
 This was the keynote of a talk that Mr. TT. R. Yaughan, of Omaha, made 
 to an audience of colored people at Lincoln Hall, on Thirty-first street, last 
 night. It was at the evening services cf Bethel A. M. E.'Church, and Mr. 
 Yaughan's speech came in place of the sermon. The Omaha man is the 
 author of a bill for pensioning the ex-slaves. It w-as introduced into Congress 
 by Representative Cornell, of Nebraska, and has passed its second reading, 
 
156 
 
 ADDEJS^DA. 
 
 It has been a pet project of Mr. Vaughan's for years, but his views have not 
 before been aired in this city. 
 
 He said down South are 4,000,000 of ex-slaves, practically paupers, and 
 made so by slavery, which he holds is a crime of the Government which 
 should now be atoned for. He disclaimed any purpose in his endeavors for 
 the negro other than simple philanthropy. He said he had already spent a 
 great deal of money in the cause. 
 
 " If Chicago starts the ball rolling," he said, "it will never stop. I pro- 
 pose going to England later, for she, too, owes her part. I mean, also, to go 
 all through the South." 
 
 "If it had not been for the colored man the war would be going on yet," 
 he continued. "The negro race don't owe the white race anything; the 
 world owes the negro race a great deal. This Government has never done 
 anything for the negro except what it had to. As long as he keeps quiet it 
 will not either. The Sioux is treated better because he has kicked. You have 
 got to stop paying respect to any two or three men — Douglas or anybody 
 else — until they get down to your level. There are 9,000,000 negroes in this 
 country, and if they stick together they can dictate to all political parties. 
 Stand by yourselves and the nation will tremble." 
 
 The speaker read a number of letters from statesmen and bankers. They 
 rejected the scheme or ignored it, and he scored them roundly. 
 
 There was a large audience present, and it grew very enthusiastic under 
 the spell of Mr. Vaughan's earnest words. Resolutions were adopted, reading 
 as follows: 
 
 Whereas, The Hon. W. R. Vau^han has devoted many years to the subject of 
 pensioning the old slaves of the South, and has prepared and had a bill introduced in 
 Cong-ress that has passed to a sec nd reading- (House bill No. 11,119, dated June 24, 1890), 
 and as this subject is of importance to 9,000,000 of colored people and some 50,000,000 of 
 whites in the United States, and as Mayor Vaughan has written a book, explaining his 
 bill and the wrongs of the colored people, for circulation, having spent thousands of 
 dollars personally in his laudable imdertaking, and as he is the first white man to ask 
 or demand a pension for the former slaves of the United States, therefore be it 
 
 Resolved, That we, the Afro- American tax-payers and voters of Chicago, in con- 
 vention now assembled at Lincoln Hall, representing a population of nearly 30,000 
 Afro-Americans, believing, as we do, that the work undertaken by Mr. Vaughan is 
 one of justice and right, do hereby pledge him our earnest co-operation and encour- 
 agement, and we do hereby promise him, ourselves and our thousands of brethren, for 
 whom Mr. Vaughan has been and is philanthropically w(>rking, that we will support 
 the candidate for political trust who is favorable to the pensioning of the former 
 slaves of the United States, and be it further 
 
 Resolved, That we at once organize a "Vaughan ex-Slave Pension Club" for the 
 purpose of rendering all possible aid in securing equity for America's former slaves, 
 and that we call on the Afro- Americans, throughout the United States to join with us 
 in similar resolutions and organizations, and we trust and pray that the national dis- 
 grace partly wiped out may be absolutely obliterated and a great wrong righted. 
 Beit 
 
 Resolved, That the chair appoint a committee to draft on parchment these resolu- 
 tions, having the same signed by the president and secretary of this meeting, and that 
 they be presented to the Hon. W. R. Vaughan, our friend, and that a copy of the same 
 be furnished to the press of Chicago and the Afro -American papers of the United 
 States. 
 
 It would be improper not to say that the resolutions above printed were 
 read before the Lincoln Hall meeting by Dr. Magee, of the Brotherhood, an 
 able newspaper devoted to the interest of the negro race, in a clear voice, 
 which manifested deep and manly sensibility. The reading called forth a 
 storm of applauee which clearly evinced the feeling and sentiment of the 
 large audience. 
 
 The effect of the first address .in behalf of the negro pension was so 
 marked as to secure an invitation for ex-Mayor Vaughan to address another 
 meeting ; and Dr. Magee, assisted by other prominent citizens, arranged with 
 the pastor of the Washington Chapel (Rev. G, W. Gaines, formerly a Ken- 
 tucky slave, is the pastor, and he is also a finished gentleman and an able man) 
 for Mr. Vaughan to speak at the chapel. In communicating the arrangement 
 Dr. Magee was pleased to indulge in some sentiments which evince the deep- 
 seated reverence the negroes, as a class, entertain towards one who has sought 
 to befriend and elevate their race ; and, illustrative of their feeling, the fol- 
 lowing extract from Dr. Magee's note is inserted ; 
 
ADDEiq^DA. 
 
 157 
 
 Hon. W. R. Vattghan, Richelieu Hotel. 
 
 My Dear Friend : * * * A number of colored men expressed a desire to 
 call on you Friday noon. Ii' you can arrange to meet us I will notify them of the time 
 and place you may suggest. The people are delighted with your plans, and, like the 
 people in the days of Christ, they exclaim, "Sirs, we would see Jesus." Paraphrase 
 the sentence and it would read, " We want to see this good man, Vaughan." Let me 
 hear from you at your earliest convenience. 
 
 Yours respectfully, J. H. Magee. 
 
 Complying with the request made, Mr. Vaughan suggested parlor "G," of 
 the Richelieu Hotel, as the place to meet his colored friends, naming date and 
 1 o'clock p. M. for the meeting. It was a satisfactory union of men of two 
 races, united in an earnest endeavor to accomplish a good work. The inter- 
 view was very satisfactory, and gave promise of good results in the near 
 future. 
 
 The meeting at the church of the G. W. Gaines was all that could have 
 been desired , and on that occasion the foundation of a mighty undertaking 
 was mapped out in a way that has given a great cause good promise of suc- 
 cessful fulfillment. The report of this meeting, given below, is also extracted 
 from the columns of the Chicago Inter-Ocean. That paper said : 
 
 W. R. Vaughan, of Omaha, Neb., lectured last night to a large audience 
 of colored people at Washington Chapel, on Dearborn street, near Twenty- 
 ninth, on the ex-slave pension law which is before Congress. This is the second 
 speech Mr. Vaughan has delivered on this subject — both to Chicago audiences. 
 
 He first took an interest in the pensioning of all ex-slaves in 1870, when he 
 visited his dying father in Alabama, and while passing through Mississippi 
 saw old and feeble colored men kicked and cuffed about by railroad officials 
 because they were unable to pay their fare. 
 
 Up to this time Mr. Vaughan says he has spent $12,000 in distributing 
 pamphlets on the subject, and he does not intend to rest until his object 
 is accomplished. He is the author of the bill, aL'\ he is more than assured of 
 its passage and its becoming a law. After lea\:ng Chicago he will visit the 
 principal cities all over the country, where he will deliver speeches and 
 exhort the people to interest themselves in the cause. 
 
 " I would feel guilty, as an American citizen, until the ex slaves have been 
 given only what is their just due," he said. " I plead not only for the old 
 slaves, but for the young ones as well, who were placed in bondage when all 
 their property was surrendered to the Government, and they have had to toil 
 like dogs to feed their old gray-haired parents." 
 
 These sentiments, coming from such a man'as Mr. Vaughan, sound strange. 
 He is a Southerner and a Democrat. His father and uncles were all large 
 slave owners. * * * 
 
 He went on to show why this debt to the colored people is a genuine debt, 
 and how by organizing they can compel tne Government to recognize their 
 claims and pay them a pension, which would amount to but a small portion 
 of what they have lost. " • 1' we do not settle this question now it will be 
 settled by our children's children, and in a very forcible manner, when the 
 colored people will greatly outnumber the whites. Besides, the more intelli- 
 gent the negroes become, the more they hate the whites. Why is this so? 
 Because they see how unjustly they are treated, while the treacherous and 
 uneducated Indian is encouraged to murder by being paid and humored to 
 grow lazy and insolent," said he. * * 
 
 Clubs will be organized in Chicago to arouse interest in this pension bill. 
 Mr. Vaughan has made arrangements for badges. The design is a suggestive 
 one — a negro chained and handcuffed, with the flag of the Union waving over 
 him. 
 
 Another idea Mr. Vaughan has is the erection of a handsf me home and 
 hospital for aged ex-slaves. It is to be called the "National ex-Slaves' 
 Home" and is to accommodate 2,000 inmates. After the old slaves are all 
 dead it will be turned into a military school for young colored men, to be 
 called the " Afro- American West Point." 
 
 Just where this building will be built is not yet determined, and Mr. 
 Vaughan will consult with some of the leading colored people of the country 
 before the site is selected. The best place is thought to be near some large 
 city, and already land has been offered. Yesterday Mr. Vaughan received a 
 letter from the Patterson Trust Company, of Chicago, offering fifty acres of 
 
15S ADDEKfiA. 
 
 land, within thirty minutes' ride of the city, for the purpose. The company 
 offers to furnish warranty deed and perfect abstract of title upon demand. 
 
 A HOME FOR OLD SLAVES, 
 
 In asking Congress to be just and fair towards the slaresof the anti-bellum 
 period it has occurred to the author of this work that many ex-slaves are now or 
 may be so decrepit and dependent before the day of relief arrives that thty will 
 be suffering those tortures incident to all human beings depressed by hunger and 
 want, which their own effort will be unable to supply. For the relief of such 
 it has suggested itself to the mind of the writer that private beneficence could 
 be invoked for the establishment of a hospital or home, managed after the 
 general spirit and manner of the various soldiers' homes now extant, where 
 dependent freedmen may be cared for in their old and declining years. This 
 subject was discussed at a public meeting in Chicago, and met with hearty 
 favor. As a sequence of such discussion the communication appearing below 
 was written to the subscribers and signed by a real estate firm amply able to 
 perform its pledges and to assiit materially in the promotion of a humane work 
 of vast magnitude. 
 
 Of course the plan proposed is yet crude, and may undergo consider- 
 able amendment before it is put in operation. But the general plan will em- 
 brace a use for property donated as a site for hospital or home purposes after 
 the race of old slaves shall have become extinct. It has occurred to the 
 author that there might be provision made for a military school for colored 
 youth, where the coming generations of black citizens might be schooled in 
 the manual of arms, and in sciences incident thereto, which will add to their 
 usefulness in life. For the advancement of such a theory, and a promulgat ion 
 of the general ideas involved, the following proposition has been submitted 
 and is still open to acceptance. [Other propositions and localities are solici- 
 ted and will be carefully considered. The house will not cost less than a 
 million dollars.] 
 
 Chicago, III., May 6, 1891, 
 
 Hon. W. H. Vaughan, Omaha, Neb.: 
 
 Dear Sir: Having- heard that it was your desire to secure, gratis, fifty acres of 
 good land within thirty minutes ride of some nice city for the purpose of beautifying 
 the grounds and erecting a handsome home»nd hospital for the ex-slaves o1 the South, 
 the same to be known as the " National Ex-Slaves' Home," and the buildings are to be 
 sufficiently large to accommodate over 2,000 persons, and at the death of fill of Amer- 
 ica's ex-slaves, we are told it is your purpose to dedicate the property to the young 
 colored men as a military school to be known as the "Afro-American West Point," 
 and that the same is to be conducted similar to that of our present (jovernment at 
 West Point. 
 
 If we are correctly informed, we desire to offer you, as Trustee and Manager, the 
 fifty acres of land wanted. It is within thirt,y minutes car-ride of Chicago, Illinois. We 
 will furnish warrantee deed and perfect absti-act of title upon demand. 
 
 Should you, in behalf of the colored people of the United b-tates, accept this offer, 
 please call at our oflices on Dearborn street, that we may consummate the matter. 
 
 Very Respectfully, 
 
 Patterson Trust Co., 
 
 By R. W. Patterson. 
 
 In canvassing through the States in behalf of the pension appeal and 
 wherever the author may go he will advocate the endowment of a home and 
 hospital of the kind proposed. It will be governed by a board of five direct- 
 ors, including the author, the residue to be representative colored men, in 
 whose selection subscribers to a hospital fund shall have a fair and equible 
 voice. Of course, the plan is yet crude, and suggestions looking to its 
 improvement, from any respectable source, will be most gladly heard and 
 considered. 
 
 Returning from his Eastern trip. Mr, Vaughan addressed two public 
 meetings at Omaha in advocacy of his views, the first at Boyd's Opera House, 
 and the second at one of the colored churches of the city. At the latter meet- 
 ing especially, there was a large and intensely interested auditory, every man 
 and woman of which entered with spirit and determination into the plans 
 which Mr. Vaughan developed. The meeting was also addressed by the 
 pastor of the church, who gave his willing assent and encouragement to the 
 plan of pension as a work of justice which the Government owed to its once 
 enslaved inhabitants. As far as active labor in behalf of the pension proposi- 
 tion has been carried forward, there is reason to hope for a success at a day 
 much earlier than great reforms usually meet with fruition when they are 
 unfolded to the masses of the people for the first time. 
 
ADDENDA. 
 
 159 
 
 The plan of granting pensions to ex-slaves was originally broached b}- the 
 author of this work, who is an Omaha citizen. The lirst bill introduced into 
 Congress looking to the great end in view was drafted by the author and 
 presented in the House of Representatives by an Omaha citizen who repre- 
 sented the Omaha district. 
 
 The first public meeting upon the question took place in Omaha, at which 
 a number of her ablest colored citizens were present. That meeting took 
 place in the month of June, 1890, and the following resolutions then and there 
 adopted were transmitted to Mr. Vaughan, for which he cordially expressed 
 thanks and approval: 
 
 Whereas, The United States GovernmeDt did, for three-quarters of a century, 
 abet, aid and eneourage slavery, the northern and southern States alike, thus making- 
 the entire Government responsible for the great injustice perpetrated on the colored 
 people, even to the extent that the slaves were taxed as chattels to the amount of 
 millions of dollar;^, and 
 
 Whereas, The glory of freedom consists in its magnitude and justice, and 
 Whereas, The negro was made a freeman in pursuance of a sentiment of right, and 
 Whereas, The proclamations of Abraham Lincoln intended to right the wrongs 
 of ages, and 
 
 Whereas, The voice of freedom holds forth the idea of universal liberty, therefore 
 
 Resolved, That the sons of liberty, represented in the African race of to-daj', 
 demand that all men made free ought to have full right of independence, irrespective 
 of race, color or previous condition of servitude. 
 
 Resolved, That we heartily concur with the Hon. W. R. Vaughan in demanding 
 that the great wrong be righted and that America's former slaves be pensioned for the 
 injustice done them; not only for the benefit of the slaves themselves, but that the 
 United States may be recognized by foreign nations, as ever ready to compensate 
 those upon whom it has committed wrong. 
 
 ResfAvcd, That eternal honor is due ex-Mayor Vaughan, who, as early as 1870, con- 
 ceived the right of pension to the men whose best days were spent in sJavery, and who 
 personally, in 1883, gave his views in writing to distinguished senators and members of 
 Congress. 
 
 Resolved, That all colored men released from bondage are under personal obliga- 
 tions to Mayor Vaughan for the manly position taken by him for their rights. 
 
 Resolved, That our lives, the honor of our Government and our most sacred rights 
 are involved in the proposition which Mr. Vaughan has caused to be presented to the 
 American Congress, through a bill prepared by him and introduced at his request by 
 the Hon. W. J. Connell, member of Congress from Nebraska, and we will do our 
 utmost to establish those rights, and to have them observed as the law of the land. 
 
 Resolved, That colored men everywher^- are requested to form clubs and to com- 
 municate with W. R. Vaughan with a view to prompt and efficient action. 
 
 Resolved, That the press of the United States, independent of political divisions, be 
 and hereby is respectfully requested to publish these resolutions, and to state to the 
 public the spirit of the law proposed by Mayor Vaughan. 
 
 A. D. White, Chairman. 
 F. L. Barnett, Secretary. 
 
 The few persons of the city of Omaha who first took an interest in this 
 noble work of humanity have been augmented in number by others, who have 
 given the question at issue proper study and inspection. The number should 
 continue to increase. The great and humane thought at the beginning 
 belongs to Omaha, and it is certain at last to prevail. It is meet and right 
 that Omaha should have due credit in the hour of success. 
 
 THE VOICE OF THE PRESS. 
 
 The power of the newspaper press of the United States is a popular lever- 
 age, carrying a weight of inliuence exceeding any other engine of thought 
 that has a tendency to create and promote opinion. The press united in 
 favor of any one device or thought would be invincible. The diverse views of 
 editorial writers have the effect of producing discussion of public questions, 
 out of which the truth is generally evolved. The author of this little work 
 kindly acknowledges the benefit which his labors have received from editorial 
 sources, both in book notices and suggestions from knights of the quill, 
 which have had a pleasing effect in overcoming rank prejudice in a num- 
 ber of cases. It would be a pleasure to have the press of the country 
 discuss the various phases of the Vaughan Freedmen's Pension Bill, as the 
 same shall appear to them. Discussion can do no harm, and in the inter- 
 change of views there is a possibility that those antagonistic to the convictions 
 of the author may find a new light manifesting itself to them. Necessarily 
 many valuable notices of newspapers have been incorporated into these pages 
 in the presentation of matters wherewith such notices were immediately con- 
 nected, but many other statements have been printed, of greater or less extent, 
 for which the writers have most sincere acknowledgment. There are others 
 which may not be improperly introduced. 
 
160 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 The Chicago Times of Friday, August 29, 1890, did not indorse the 
 Vaughan idea of negro pensions, but in noting the presence of the author in 
 the lakeside city was good enough to remark: 
 
 Judg-e W, K. Vaughan, ex-mayor of Council Bluffs, Iowa, now editor and proprieto 
 of the Omaha Daily DemocraU is, at the Palmer House. Judge Vau^han's latest is to 
 secure pensions for all ex-slaves who are not criminals. June 24, Congressman Cou- 
 ncil, by his request, introduced into the national Hovise of Representatives a bill to pro- 
 vide pensions for f reedmen. The document provides that all persons released from 
 involuntary servitude, according to the proclamations of Abraham Lincoln, shall be 
 pensioners upon the bounty of the United States excepting those convicted of crime. 
 
 The Tribune of Thursday, May 7, 1891, in noticing one of Mr. Vaughan's 
 lectures at Chicago, did so in the following words: 
 
 Ex-Mayor "Walter Vaughan addressed an audience of colored people at Dr. Wash- 
 ington's church, on Dearborn street, near T went J'- ninth, last night, on the subject of 
 his ex-Slave Pension bill. Mr. Vaughan told his hearers, in substance, thatthe Gov- 
 ernment was indebted to the negroes f' r the long years of servitude they had 
 undergone. He criticised President Harrison for writing a letter in reply to a request 
 for his assistance, in which Mr. Harrison said : " I have not had time to give the sub- 
 ject thought." Mr. Vaughan advised the negroes to stand together and demand their 
 political rights. 
 
 It was Mr. Harrison's opinion that was solicited, not his assistance, and the 
 author regretted that the then senator from Indiana and now President had 
 not had time to arrrive at any opinion whatever in the premises. 
 
 A private letter received from Editor Cooper, of the Indianapolis Freemen, 
 after soliciting a cut of the author for publication in that valuable journal, 
 was graciously kind in appending the following flattering remark: 
 
 We shall be glad to keep in constant communication with you, and we feel certain 
 that we can be efficacious in keeping your name and your work before the nine million 
 of colored people in this country. Should you visit IndianapoHs at any time we shall 
 expect to meet you in person. 
 
 It was with difficulty that the author of Vaughan's Freedman's Pension 
 Bill and Plea for the Old Slave secured even a negative recognition from the 
 public press when the first edition appeared and sought the countenance of 
 public attention. Few editors favored the idea advanced, and those opposed 
 would not give the work even the courtesy of saying that the plea was 
 not in consonance with their opinions of public policy. The settled idea 
 seemed to be that of killing the appeal by ignoring it altogether. But in the 
 face of contemptuous silence from the hundreds of newspapers to which 
 copies of the first edition were mailed, there were other papers — they were 
 few but very grand — gave the matter discussed a decent review, even when 
 not favorable to the principle Involved. To such journals are due sin- 
 cerest thanks. 
 
 The Omaha Z)(2^72/ of Sunday, November 30, 1890, contained the fol- 
 lowing excellent mention in its column of book notices: 
 
 In an attractive book of 125 pages Hon. W. R. Vauehan, ex-mayor and editor, 
 presents an elaborate explanation of his "Freedman's Pension Bill." The book is not 
 only an exposition of that unique measure, but is one of the most interesting and com- 
 plete statements of the negro question which has been written. A Virginian l)ybirthand 
 a democrat in politics, Mr. Vaughan yields to no man in his interest in the uplifting of 
 the negro to a plane of respectable citizenship. His book is dedicated to Hon. W. J. 
 Connell, " the brave representative who dared to say that the slave of a century is 
 entitled to financial recognition because of former wrongs. " It reviews the history 
 of slavery in the United States, of the negro in the war, and of the progress of 
 the negro since the war. Numerous portraits of eniment colored men are 
 printed. Having proved that the negro race was worthy, both before and after its 
 emancipation, the author proceeds to argue the injustice of leaviTig them free but 
 ignorant and poor, and to show how his pension scheme would be a long delayed 
 measure of justice. Among the features of the book are autograph letters from 
 President Harrison and other well known public men. It is a work that is come of a 
 very wide reading and should certainly be liberally patronized by the author's many 
 friends in this locality. 
 
 The editor-in-chief and manager of the Omaha Bee is the Hon. Edward 
 Rosewater, a gentleman who is at once a leading republican politician, a 
 statesman of fearless views, as he has manifested on many occasions ; a man 
 of research, especially skilled in the science of telegraphy and all other lines 
 of electrical management ; and a citizen of broad views on all social ques- 
 tions which affect the general welfare. While not cordially endorsing the 
 idea of negro pensionage, he is willing that the experiment shall have fair 
 discussion and honest consideration. 
 
ADDEXDA. 
 
 161 
 
 Especial recognition is given to the Denver News, which gave the proposed 
 pension bill an elaboi ate editorial discussion, afier a critical examination 
 the pamphlet edition first issued. On Monday, December 22, 1890, the News 
 editorialized, under the caption of " Pensioning Ex-Slaves," as follows : 
 
 TheJVe u'S is in receipt of a pamphlet by Hon. Walter R. Vaughan, editor of the 
 Omaha Denioc/ at, entitled " Vaughan's Freedmen's Pen-ion Bill,"' being an appeal in 
 b half of the passage by Congress of the bill introduced at the last session by Hon. 
 W. J. Connell, of the Fn-st Nebraska District, "providing for pensions for freedmen 
 released from involuntary servitude, and to atford aid and assistance for certain per- 
 sons released, that they may be maintained in old age." This bill was prepared by 
 Mr. Vaughan, and the pamphlet he has recently published is an argument in favor of 
 its passtge. 
 
 Mr. Vaughan is a natire of Virginia, a Democrat by birth, education and instinct, 
 his father and three brothers serving on the Confederate side during the War of the 
 Rebellion, he himself only being prevented from entering the same service \>y 
 reason of his youth. In his appeal Mr. Vaugh-n traces the histoiyof slavery in this 
 country from the time of its intriiduction by the slave traders of Great Britain in the 
 early part of the seventeenth century to the' date of their freedom after the great war 
 between the States. =*= * * 
 
 He simply points to the fact that here was a race of people kept in slavery by the 
 laws of the Government for over two and a half centuries, denied all the rights of 
 citizenship, treated as cattle, horses, swine and other chattels ; »who were uned- 
 ucated, illiterate, dependent creatures, suddenly given their freedom and thrown on 
 their own resources ; in the language of Mr. Vaughan, " the old slave was turned out 
 to starve or die."' 
 
 It is for these creatures that Mr. Vaughan makes his appeal. * * * 
 
 Giving Mr. Vaughan credit for sinceritj' and an honest desire to do what he con- 
 siders to tie a just and humane act, we are not prepared to endorse his proposition. 
 * * * The negro is all right if let alone. Let politicians keep their hands off the 
 South and lease the -whites and blacks to work out the problem as to how they shall 
 manage. * * * But there is an air of sincerity' about Mr. Vaughan's plea which 
 entitles it to respectful consideration. 
 
 Hon. John x\ikins, editor of the News, is -a leading democrat of the West, 
 well known throughout the Uni )n, and his views are entitled to consideration. 
 The argument he has made a iversely to pension has alread}' been fully 
 answered in this book. He is therefore entitled to be heard, for he is an 
 honest and well-thinking man. 
 
 The Advocate, of Omaha, a paper published by a negro of ability and char- 
 acter in the interest of his own race, had the following to say in its issue of 
 Saturday, November 22, 1890: 
 
 We present to our many readers this week a sketch of one who has proven himself 
 to be a friend, and a true friend, to our race. Hon Walter R. Vaughan is a well known 
 business man of our city, one who has sufficient influence to command for us a great 
 deal. He is also a Southern man. one Avho knows the need of the negro, and who has 
 seen the poor black man labor from early morn into the blackness of night under the 
 heavy yoke of slavery- and oppression- ' »ur friend, we realize that, " a friend in need, 
 is a friend indeed."" Continue in your well begun work, and before the sun of your life 
 is set, may av realize jusrice from the hands of the American Governmeut, and ever 
 may the name of Walter R. ^'aughan be revered and honored hy the manj' millions of 
 Afro- Americans in the comnig generations. 
 
 The Omaha Progress, published by Mr. F. L. Barnett, a gentleman of 
 high ability as a writer and an honor to the negro race, published the follow- 
 ing paragraph in its edition of Saturday, May 23, 1891: 
 
 We believe Mr. Vaughan is sincere in his undertaking to have the bill pass Con- 
 gress to pension ex-slaves, and we heartily endorse his sentiments ajid will do all in 
 our power to help in the good work. It'is a just debt and should be paid. You ail 
 know that the W' ite man had our labor for two huudied years, and this Government 
 should pay for it. Let every Afro-American in th.s Statf help him push the good work 
 on to victory. Get one of his books, for Mr. Vaughan is right. 
 
 The Freeman, of Indianapolis, lod.. under date of December 13, 1890, had 
 the foUowiag rem irk concerning the Vaughan bo'^k, and the same paper has 
 made other approbatory remarks on the same s-ubject: 
 
 "A Plea for American Freedmen," by W. R. Vaughan, of Omaha, Xeb., is a little 
 book that ought to be read by e\"ery one for its historic value. It is truly "multum 
 in parvo." Without reflection we would say it is the Freedmen's Case in Equity. We 
 heartily endorse the Freedmen's Pension bill as human, as just, as equitable The 
 passage of such a bill by Congress would, to a very great exient, compensate the sur- 
 viving ex-slaves for years of unrequited toil. As the writer truthfully says : " It will 
 enable an impoverished race, reduced to iienury through no fault of their own, to 
 place themselves in a position of reasonable independence in their struggle for exist- 
 encf- and recognition in general business affairs." The name of W. R. Vaughan will 
 certainly have a place in the galaxy of humanitarians. 
 
162 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 The New York Advertiser, edited by the Hon. John A Oockerill, probably 
 the best newspaper man in the Union, who came to New York with Josepu 
 Pulitzer to refound, as it were, the New York World, then in the ihroes of 
 dissolution — the success of this newspaper under John A. CockeriJl's man- 
 agement is well known and needs no comment. Mr. Cockerill recently left 
 the World and purchased the New York Commtreial Advertiser, the oldest 
 paper in the city, and the Daily Continent, the latter now called the Morning 
 Advertiser -has had much to say editorially in regard to the Vaughan Ex- 
 Slave Pension bill. On July 31, 1891, the Advertiser gives the matter a col- 
 umn and a half write-up. August 3, 1891, it published the following article. 
 We reproduce the same, hoping to correct the evil by agitation. Colonel 
 Cockerill says: 
 
 A FIELD FOR VAUGHAN. 
 
 " There really appears to be plenty of business in this country for a man 
 like W. R. Vaughan, of Iowa. Another Abraham Lincoln is necessary to 
 see that the colored man gets all his rights, and if Vaughan isn't that man, 
 who is? There is much need for Vaughan just now in Mississippi, where 
 the colored man is threatened with disfranchisement. 
 
 The two provisions in the new constitution of that State, one of which 
 provides for the prepayment of a poll-tax four months before an election, and 
 the other an educational qualification, are likely to reduce the negro vote at 
 least 75 per cent. 
 
 To deprive three-fourths of the colored people of Mississippi of the 
 right of suffrage granted to them under the constitution of the United States 
 is a matter which should claim the attention of friends of the negro, and we 
 hasten to lay the matter before Mr. Vaughan. The ex-slaves will doubtless 
 be ^lad enough to receive the $400,000,000 he proposes to get for them from 
 the United States Government and Great Britain, but they certainly do not 
 wish to be deprived of the right to vote. 
 
 If Mr. Vaughan can restore the electoral franchise to these oppressed 
 blacks of Mississippi, there will then be none to question his ability to swing 
 the negro vote in '92." 
 
 The New York World of August 2, 1891, published the following : 
 
 PENSIONS FOR EX-SLAVES. 
 
 " W. R. Vaughan, of Omaha, Neb., has published a pamphlet on the ques- 
 tion of paying pensions to ex-slaves. He claims that the Government was 
 not warranted in freeing slaves without providing them with means of 
 support. 
 
 Mr. Vaughan prepared a bill to that end, which was introduced in Con- 
 gress by Representative Council, of Omaha. It was referred to the Commit- 
 tee on Pensions, which never reported upon it. 
 
 Many well-known men, among them Bishops Newman and Arnett and 
 Frederick Douglass, have written letters of thanks to Mr. Vaughan for his 
 labors." 
 
 The Chicago Mail of August 18. 1891, gave publicity to the following 
 silly telegram from Washington, D.C., and we re-publish the same, to show 
 how recklessly newspapers at times allow articles to appear in their columns. 
 
 LATEST REPUBLICAN MOVE. 
 
 VAUGHAN's SCHEME TO PENSION NEGROES IS DESIGNED TO KEEP THEM IN THE 
 
 PARTY. 
 
 Washington, D. C, August 17. — When Vaughan, ex-mayor of Council 
 Bluffs, made his speech six weeks ago to a throng of breathless negroes, in 
 which he said the ex-slaves should have $400,000,000 from the Government 
 as pensions, everybody thought Vaughan was a blatant, ignorant demagogue. 
 But there was more behind it than was at first suspected. There is evidence 
 — and a good deal of it, too — that this is a new scheme to hold the negro to 
 the republican party till after 1892. It is a revamping of the story told in the 
 South for ten years about the Government's intention to bestow upon the 
 newly freed forty acres of land and a mule. 
 
ADDEXDA. 
 
 163 
 
 It is well-nigh incredible tbat such a scheme as Yaughan is advocating 
 should be approved by prominent republicans, but it is — that is to say, they 
 know it can never amount to anything, but it will be believed by the negro 
 voters in the South and will bring them out to the polls. Vaughan tried to 
 commit the president to it, but Harrison had too much sense to be led into 
 such a snare. Fred Douglass has come out in a letter favoring it. Douglass 
 knows, of course, that there is no possible chance for such a scheme, but he 
 is in the plot. It is being preached all through the South. 
 
 The author is a Democrat and not a Republican, and be never saw and 
 talked with President Harrison in his life, nor has he had a line from him since 
 1883. The above article is only in keeping with many similar misrepresent- 
 ations concocted to injure the Vaughan Ex-Slave pension bill. The Chi- 
 cago Tribune, a radical Republican paper, has published column after 
 column, editorially, in opposition to the Vaughan Ex-Slave pension bill, but 
 in ea^.h instance the argument was so vague and nonsensical that ihey were 
 self-condemning and manifested malice and hatred to the negro. Tne fol- 
 lowing article appeared in that paper, August 18, 1891, to wit: "Mr. 
 Vaughan, of Nebraska, the man who proposes to give the ex-slaves, freed at 
 the expense of so many lives and so much money, a pension of .$400,000,000 
 based on 23^ percent, fifty-year government bonds, sajs that he has letters of 
 personal recommendation from John M. Thurston, Senator Cullom, Carter 
 Harrison, and a number of other prominent Republicans and Democrats, and 
 that most of them say regarding his bill, ' Even if the details of the plan may be 
 found impracticable, something in the line of the measure ought to be adopted.' 
 Undoubtedly those gentlemen who wrote thus did so more out of politeness 
 and a wish to get rid of Mr. Vaughan than because they took stock in his 
 project. It would have been better for them to say plumply that they had 
 no sympathy with any such scheme, and were opposed unalterably to taxing 
 the people to carry it out, especially as those who constitute now the majority 
 of American citizens had nothing whatever to do with slavery in any man- 
 ner, shape, or form, never profited by it, and never maintained it. Why 
 should any man of forty or under be taxed on account of ex-slaves? The 
 best and kindest plan for public men to pursue when cranks write to them 
 about their whimsical ideas is to squelch them summarily and not hold out 
 even a suspicion of the coolest kind of sympathy. The least intimation of 
 approval always encourages the crank to keep on in his folly." 
 
 On August 12th, 1891, the Chicago Tribune published the following 
 editorial : 
 
 PENSIONING THE EX-SLAVES. 
 
 A iSTebraskan named Vaughan makes the wild and ridiculous demand that 
 the United States Government pension all the ex-slaves. The Tribune spoke 
 of this fantastic scheme in the terms it deserved. The Charleston (S. C.) 
 News and Courier observes : 
 
 It is easy to see why the Tribune is opposed to pensioning the ex-slaves. 
 Its policy is dictated entirely by its inveterate hatred of the South and South- 
 ern people. Of course it is opposed to pensioning the ex-slaves, because it 
 knows that about 7,000,000 of those interesting people live in the South, and 
 most of the pension money would be circulated in the South. We venture to 
 say that if a majority of the negroes lived in the North or Northwest the 
 Tribune would be the most powerful advocate of the Vaughan movement. 
 
 If pensions should be given those black men on whose unwilling labor the 
 slaveholders lived until they were set free by Lincoln and Northern blood and 
 treasure, then the pensions should be paid by those who profited by the un- 
 rewarded toil. If Robert Smalls' ex-master made more out of Robert while 
 he held him as a chattel than the cost of clothing, feeding, doctoring, and 
 housing him, then that ex-chattel has a moral right to begin a suit in assump- 
 sit quantum meruit to recover the amount, whatever it was, that is due him. 
 
 * * * Whatever pensioning or repaying is done must be the 
 free act of a touched and regenerated Southern conscience, remorseful for 
 the wrongs done the bondmen in the past. Under no possible circumstances 
 can there be any paying of such pensions by the non-slaveholding North, 
 
164 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 which was not benefited by slave labor — for the masters pocketed what profits 
 were made — but which, owing to the existence of slavery, was saddled with 
 an enormous debt in the efforts of abolishing it which is not yet paid off. 
 Slavery is morally indefensible and economically bad, especially for the non- 
 slaveholders in the slave States ; but it had its educational advantages for the 
 blacks, as Stanley or any other man who knows the negroes of Africa and 
 also those of the United States will say. They have been taught to labor, 
 they have been taught Christian civilizaiion, and to speak the noble English 
 language instead of some African gibberish. The account is square with the 
 ex-slaves. The pension proposition is idiotic in its absurdity. But if any 
 were to be pa d it should come out of the ex-masters' pockets. 
 
 Now, in order to answer all such foolish newspaper opposition, we repro- 
 duce in this volume a few of the hundreds of letters in our possession, from 
 representative tax-payers and politicians, giving fac-simile signatures with 
 each. They should convince the intelligent reader that the author of the 
 Ex-slave pension bill is in earnest with his work, and that his ideas are far 
 from visionary and cranky. It will be a very difficult matter for the editor of 
 the Tribune to convince any American citizen, with a spark of justice iu his 
 heart, that slavery was a Southern wrong, rather than a national evil, and that 
 the debt due the ex-slave should be borne by the former master, when the 
 United States Government became enriched by and through this stolen labor. 
 At least 9,000,000 of tax-paying negroes and 2.000,000 of negro 
 voters that are propagating very rapidly will soon demand from the United 
 States and Great Britain what is justfy due their race, for keeping them in 
 involuntary servitude. The New York World of July 31, 1891, gave the 
 Vaughan Ex-slave pension bill a column notice, and has since followed the 
 subject up, indicating its disposition to let the matter be fairly discussed. 
 
 Many other journals of fairness, representing the white and black races, 
 have given excellent notices of the Vaughan's Negro Pension labors, but not 
 having the papers now at hand the notices can not be reproduced. Enough, 
 however, have been given to demonstrate that the cause of justice to the 
 old slave is gaining a substantial foothold. In a comparatively short time 
 there will be none so base as to refuse to the appeal in behalf of the once 
 patient skve, a fair and candid consideration. 
 
 The skies are brightening. 
 
 The " Brotherhood," published near the close of May, 1891, contained a 
 very complimentary notice of the efforts of ex-Mayor Vaughan, to secure the 
 passage of his Pension Measure, in which the following approbatory com- 
 mendation appeared: 
 
 "Hon. W. R. Vaughan, of Omaha, Neb., the author of 'Vaughan's 
 Freedman's Pension Bill,' which has passed the second reading in Congress, 
 spent two weeks in Chicago, in the interest of his book and Pension bill. 
 Mr. Vaughan is a remarkable man in eloquence, personal magnetism and 
 philanthropy. He first began to take an interest in the pensioning of ex- 
 slaves in 1870. When he visited his dying father in Alabama, and while pas- 
 sing through Mississippi, he saw old and feeble colored men kicked and cuffed 
 about by railroad officials because they were unable to pay their fare. Mr. 
 Vaughan takes the ground that the Government having recognized slavery 
 for many years, is responsible to the slaves who labored to build up the 
 Southern States, as unwilling subjects to involuntary slavery. He says that 
 somebody owes these people for 240 years of unrequited labor. His book 
 fully sets forth the reasons why the bill should become a law and is a most 
 remarkable presentation of the justness of its claims. 
 
 "It is a second 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' which was the entering wedge 
 to the final overthrow of slavery in this country. 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' 
 was writ en by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852. Several hun- 
 dred thousands of her books were read by the nations of the world 
 and by the South in particular; eight years later the United States was 
 in the throes of an internecine war, which culminated in a great Emanci- 
 pation through a baptism of blood. Twenty-eight years later a white man 
 appears upon the public arena, and fearlessly, like John the Baptist, the fore- 
 runner of Christ, tells this people that they owe these people a debt which 
 ought to be paid. * * * We would like to see the bill pass, and will do 
 
ADDENDA. 
 
 165 
 
 all we can to aid its passage, because we believe the colored man who has 
 ever been faithful and kind to the white people, and a true and tried defender 
 of the nation's fiag in the nation's peri], is more entitled to a pension than 
 the Indian, whose hands have been led in the blood of the American people 
 for more than 200 years, and jet, strange to say, our Government feeds and 
 clothes these same Indians or their descendants just the same as though they 
 were the best people on earth. 
 
 An Indian can get on a train and say " gh " " big Indian " to the conduc- 
 tor and ride across the continent free of charge. It a colored man is unable 
 to pay his fare he is kicked off the train at the'first station. Why is it thus?" 
 
 [To the dear friend who has kindly published the foregoing- the author will say 
 that he has no fear of fatal opposition of the South. Northern impracticables are far 
 more dangf rous.] 
 
 FOR THE BENEFIT OF EX-SLAVES. 
 
 The following blank is prepared for the purpose of securing, as nearly as 
 may be practicable, the names and present places of residence of negroes 
 emancipated from slavery by presidential proclamation, amendment of Fed- 
 eral and State constitutions, and the ciicumstances of the War of the Rebel- 
 lion from 1861 to 1865. 
 
 1. Write full name below: 
 
 2. Give name of master before emancipation, and his occupation: 
 
 3. Give County and State where held in slavery at time of being set free: 
 
 4. State your present age, giving date and place of birth, if known; if not, proba- 
 ble age, and place of nativity: 
 
 5. State what business you have followed since emancipation. If a tradesman of 
 any craft in slave days, state what your trade was, and whether you have followed the 
 same avocation since Lecoming a free man: 
 
 6. Give your present Post-office address: 
 
 7. Give the names of two reputable witnesses who will make oath to the facts you 
 have stated, of their own knowledge, and where they reside: 
 
 8. State any other important fact touching your present abode or former place of 
 residence, or that will in any way aid in your indentifi ation. 
 
 Mali this blank to W. R. Vaughan. 
 
 Note.— All newspapers and other periodical publications issued in the interest of 
 the colored race, and also all papers having broad and catholic views upon subjects 
 that appertain to the weal of a recently enslaved race, now striving to establish a high 
 civilization and to advance the material interests of an important class of American 
 citizens, are requested to give the foregoing blank a few gratuitous insertions, in order 
 that all persons included within the scope of Vaughan's Freedman's Pension Bill may 
 learn of the efforts now being made in their interests, and may be enabled to provide 
 the data necessary to include themselves within the purview of such benefits as may 
 ensue from future legislation by Congress. W. R. V. 
 
 Washington B. C, 1891. 
 
 A NATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 
 
 One of the points designed to be consummated by the work undertaken 
 in behalf of the ex-slave of the South, is the formation of clubs or associations 
 everywhere which shall recognize a principal association or head at the seat 
 of national government, to which all local clubs, or orders, will acknowledge 
 paternity, and by means of such a cordon of lodges the old slaves may be able 
 to control an influence in public affairs that would be otherwise utterly 
 impracticable. These orders will be controlled exclusively by colored men, 
 the only condition being that Mr. Vaughan, or, in the event of his death, one 
 of his five sons, may meet with the lodges when necessary for the advance- 
 ment of the grand work of Pension or Indemnity, which will be the central 
 idea of the fraternity in its head and collateral branches. The organization 
 will^ be secret only so far as may be necessary to promote the great end in 
 view, and to solidify the negro element in a compact body for the advance- 
 ment of the main end in view. The association will be non-political in its 
 general tendency, committed by pledge only to the support of men who favor 
 
166 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 the great thought of negro pension in their candidacy for ofQ.ce. But the 
 membership will be pledged, irrevocably, agaicst the fcupporl of any person 
 for place, who fails or refuses to pledge himself distinctly in favor of the 
 general idea of the Vaughan Freedmen's Pension Bill. In a word, the asso- 
 ciation will be one of the colored race alone, designed to advance the welfare 
 of the old slaves and their descendants. 
 
 An insignia of association will be a badge, already being prepared, which 
 will be regarded as a sacred talisman of union and determination wherever 
 shown, and by whoever worn. An idea of the style of such a badge may be 
 gathered from the following extract taken from the columns of the Western 
 Jeweler, published at Chicago, May 9, 1891. Under the caption of " Score 
 One for Home Industries," the Jeweler remarks: 
 
 " Messrs. Juergens & Anderson, the well-known manufacturing jewelers, 
 125 State street, have secured one of the largest — if not the largest — orders 
 for the making of badges ever placed in the United States with one manufac- 
 turing house. Last Monday, Hon. W. R. Vaughan, ex-mayor of Council 
 Bluffs, la., passing through Chicago en route for New York, called upon the 
 Editor of the Western Jeweler [an old-time friend of his in the Northwest], 
 and e7i passant mentioned that he was going to New York to secure a design 
 and place an order for a number of badges. The Western Jeweler pointed 
 out to Mr. Vaughan that there was no necessity for his going abroad with his 
 favors, and the arguments brought to bear were sufficiently persuasive to 
 cause Mayor Vaughan to reconsider his decision. The result was that after 
 a very satisfactory interview with Messrs. Juergens & Anderson, a contract 
 was signed calling for the delivery of one hundred thousand badges, to cost 
 one dollar each. This quantity may probably be quadrupled within six 
 months. 
 
 "This badge is to be worn by the members of a society that is knowue 
 as ' Vaughan Ex-Slave Pension Club.' The objects of the association ar 
 to secure the passage of a bill now before Congress [having passed its second 
 reading, being introduced last session by Representative W. J. Connell, of 
 Nebraska, at the request of Mayor Vaughan], which will entitle all ex slaves 
 to certain pensions. Branch clubs are now organized in many of the larger 
 cities of the Union, and it is expected that in a very short time the member- 
 ship list will attain prodigious dimensions. The workmanship on the badge 
 is quite up to the invariable standard of excellence of Messrs. Juergens & 
 Anderson's factory, and the firm are to be congratulated on being lucky 
 enough to secure the contract." 
 
 The front of the medal or badge will be a face of pure gold, 14 carats fine, 
 with a back of solid plating. The badge will be worn only by members of 
 the Associations in process of formation, and which is designed to work a 
 revolution in public opinion. A single badge could not be made for a less 
 price than $5.00, but an order for one hundred thousand has brought about 
 the low price of one dollar each. The work of the Vaughan Pension Move- 
 ment is going forward with a will. 
 
 The associations alluded to are constitutional in their organization, and 
 their organism is open to the most rigid inspection. At another place in this 
 volume the constitution will be found inserted in full. It is certainly subject 
 to no captious objections. 
 
 Form of Membership. 
 
 The following form is recommended for immediate usein making applica- 
 tion for the formation of subordinate orders of the Freedman's Pension Asso- 
 ciation under the National Order: 
 
ADDENDA. 
 
 167 
 
 The undersigned Colored Citizens of respect- 
 fully make application for the issuance of a charter for a subordinate order of 
 
 the VaugJian Freedmen's Pension Association to he established at 
 
 in the County of. . . and State of 
 
 Name. 
 
 Post-0 fflce. 
 
 Age. 
 
 Whether Former SlaveorFree 
 
 
 
 
 
 Until the formation of the National order at Washington, which may 
 necessarily be deferred until after the meeting of Congress in December, 1891, 
 applications may be addressed to W. R. Vaughan, at Chicago, 111., who will 
 file the same and keep applicants advised of all movements in the direction 
 of forming clubs, and the general work incident to the welfare of the Freed- 
 man's Pension Movement. 
 
 AN APPEAL LETTER. 
 
 But few white people in the United States can say that they have not en- 
 joyed profits from negro slave labor, either directly or indirectly. If you 
 have or if you have not, and you wish to honestly aid in righting a great 
 wrong, either while living or in your last wills, it is to be hoped that you will 
 remember the great work now being done for the ex slave. The author of the 
 movement has spent $30,000 in the cause, and will continue to give his time 
 and money thereto until death stops his effort. He has resolved to establish a 
 national ex-slaves' Home, erect a military or West Point school for young 
 negro men. Will you help him in his work ? A few hundred dollars each, 
 contributed by those who should be friendly to this cause, will start the two 
 splendid institutions just mentioned, and will assist in the free distribution of 
 thousands of these books to the ex-slaves of the South, who are wild to get the 
 same and cannot do so for the want of money. Already Hon. Carter H. 
 Harrison, ex-Mayor of Chicago; Hon. P. Kiolbassa, City Treasurer of Chicago; 
 John M. Thurston, and a great many other philanthropic gentlemen, have 
 sent cash checks to the author with a view of aiding in the distribution of this 
 book without either endorsing or rejecting the bill, but with a view of giving 
 publicity to the same, that the arguments therein, giving cogent reasons why 
 the Government should grant this pension, may be fully read and considered. 
 Will you not follow the example already set for you by great and good men, 
 and help us in this work? 
 
 FORM OF BEQUEST. 
 
 I give and bequest to W. R. Vaughan, Manager, the sum of 
 
 Dollars, to be applied to the use and purposes of buying 
 
 land for the purpose of erecting the ''Ex-Slaves National Home," and the 
 ''Afro- American West Point," and for which the receipt of W. R. Vaughan 
 shall he a sufficient discharge. 
 
 If the above form is used by persons desiring to make bequests to this 
 worthy cause, there will be no difficulty or misunderstanding as to the inten- 
 tion of the donor. Persons desiring to aid W. R. Vaughan in his philanthropic 
 work, will please forward their contributions to W. R. Vaughan, 6756 Went- 
 worth Ave., Chicago. 
 
168 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 DR. J. H. MAGEE. 
 
 It would be a pleasure to be able to contribute to this volume such a bio- 
 graphical sketch as tlie merits of the distinguished gentleman, whos^ name 
 heads this brief article, entitles him to receive. There is no memoranda at 
 hand to do the subject justice. Dr. Magee is a remarkable man. He is just 
 now devoting his talents to the publication of the Brotherhood, a strong 
 weekly journal, printed in Chicago and devoted to the interest of the colored 
 race. In declaring his platform, Dr. Magee, with a heart full of love for all 
 good works and the sources from which they emanate, has put himself on 
 record in these words: 
 
 ''The Brotherhood, as its name implies, devotes itself in part to all frater- 
 nal societies, as they exist among our people. Its columns shall be opened to 
 tlie pens of the best writers in all parts of the Republic, for the (iissemin;»tion 
 of useful iaformation. We ask the hearty co-operation of lodges and ben vo- 
 lent societies in earnest support, and we will give them a paper to aid their 
 vast and increasing membership." 
 
 No person can peruse the columns of the Brotherhood without knowing 
 and feeling that the various orders which that journal so ably sustains are 
 very largely indebted to their society realm for the propigation of good morals 
 and educational science among the colored people. It is in the combination 
 that the societies have strength, and it is through these that su^h men as Dr. 
 Magee are enabled to do so much good for the race t » which they belong. 
 Again the Brotherhood declares : 
 
 " We sliall hold up the Banner of Truth, which shall reflect the one com- 
 
ADDENDA. 
 
 169 
 
 mon origin of man in the ' Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man,' 
 regardless of race, creed or country. We wish to keep the readers of the 
 Brotherhood interested in timely topics of the day. We will try to please as well 
 as instruct, and now we close our editorial greetings with the earnest hope and 
 steadfast faith that the Brotherhood may win for itself a cordial support and a 
 wide field of usefulness." 
 
 The sentiments declared in such lofty terms amply mark the life and 
 character of Dr. J. H. Magee. Of course such a man is a model husband, a 
 good father, an excellent citizen and a pleasurable companion. Dr. Magee has 
 been a good deal of a traveler in his time. His education was completed in 
 the City of London, and thus by contact with the people of other lands and 
 climes, he has learned much that can not be imparted in the school room or 
 from the pages of a book. He has used his talents to excellent advantage, 
 and with the sturdy honesty of his nature, he may truly be called "an honest 
 man, the noblest work of God." 
 
 In th*e affairs of life Dr. Magee has been reasonably successful. He 
 formerly resided, and still passes a good part of his time in Southern Illinois. 
 He has property interests at Metropolis City, where he is generally known 
 and is greatly beloved. Judge Benjamin O. Jones, of the Massac County 
 Court is his especial friend and admirer, so that the intimate friendships of 
 the worthy doctor are not confined to the black race by any means. In Chi- 
 cago, Dr. Magee has purchased a home on Butterfield and 47th streets, where 
 he is surrounded by an interesting family, and is in the enjoyment of the 
 blessings arising from a conscience void of offense. 
 
 In public affairs he is a prominent actor and wields a large influence. 
 Being an ardent Republican, he is naturally high in the confidence of the best 
 men of his party. He now holds the office of grain inspector by appoint- 
 ment of Governor Fifer, and his duties are discharged in a way to secure the 
 good will of business men who come in contact with him in his official 
 relations. 
 
 For many years Dr. Magee followed the calling of a schoolteacher, and 
 he has made his impress upon the public wherever he has taught. Taken 
 all in all, he is a most valuable man, and one whom to know is to love. 
 
 In early life Dr. Magee was greatly afflicted with necrosis or death of 
 the bone, from which he suffered the tortures of almost death itself. He un- 
 derwent a surgical operation, in which part of the bone of the left thigh and 
 the heel bone of the right foot was removed. In an acknowledgment of 
 divine interposition in his restoration to robust health and manly vigor, he 
 wrote a book of 175 pages, which he was pleased to call "The night of Afflic- 
 tion and Morning of Recovery." This book had an immense sale. The Dr. 
 will republish his book in an enlarged edition, giving important personal 
 reminiscences of Hon. W. R Vaughan, author of the Freedman's Pension 
 bill. Gov. Oglesby, Gov. Fifer, Senator CuUom, John A. Logan, Col. Wm. R. 
 Brown and others. Dr. Magee is well educated and enjoys the rare distinc- 
 tion of a course of religious training in Spurgeon's College, London, England, 
 also a Grammar school education in Toronto, Canada. He was a member 
 of the Republican State Central Committee of Illinois four years, and is 
 regarded as one of the best orators in the State. His labors in National and 
 State campaigns are very affective. He enjoys the acquaintance and friend- 
 ship of the leading white men, as well as a leader of his race in Illinois. 
 
 Dr. Mafjee is a prominent member and one of the trustees of Quinn 
 Chapel, A. M. E. Church, Chicago; he is also a local elder in the same 
 church, and an earnest worker in the Sunday-schoi- 1. He is one of the trus- 
 tees of Providence Hospital, an institution under the able management of 
 prominent colored men, of whom Dr. D. H, Williams and Bishop John M. 
 Brown and others are represented on the board of management. 
 
 EDWARD ELDER COOPER, 
 
 The gentleman whose name heads this brief biographical sketch is one of 
 the most successful editoriil writers who devotes his time and talents to the 
 benefit of the negro race, of which he is a shining example. In truth this 
 sketch can scarcel,y be called a biography, for the reason that the writer is 
 not familiar with the youthful career of Mr. Cooper. From a publication 
 
170 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 made in the New York Age by Mr. W. A. Sweeney, it has been learned that 
 Mr. Cooper is a Southerner by birth, but that he sought a home in the North 
 at an early age. He was a hotel waiter at a Philadelphia hostelry in the 
 Centennial year, and after the festivities of the memorable international 
 event which marked a hundred years of American independence had con- 
 cluded, Mr. Cooper found it convenient to turn his steps westward. He 
 located at Indianapolis, where he entered school, and for twelve months 
 worked for his board and clothing. He continued to labor as he studied, 
 and finally graduated from the City High School as the sole colored matricu- 
 
 EDWARD ELDER COOPER. 
 
 late in a class of sixty-five persons. After his graduationkind friends secured 
 for him an appointment in the railway mail service, where he served four 
 years, retiring in 1886. But while in the postal service Mr. Cooper joined 
 with Edward F. Horn, formerly of Evansville, and others in the publication 
 of the Indianapolis Worlds a weekly newspaper, devoted to the interest of the 
 colored race, and the propagation of the principles of the Republican party. • 
 The World was a successful business venture, but a change of postal routes 
 obliged the temporary retirement of Mr. Cooper from the newspaper field. 
 When relieved from the postal service, Mr. Cooper returned to the World 
 enterprise, but was regretful to find that a once prosperous journal had run 
 down from a circulation of 2,000 to about 500, and that the business estab- 
 
ADDEXDA. 
 
 171 
 
 lishment was seriously involved in pecuniary embarrassment. He succeeded 
 in revivino: thie business prosperity of the journal, and speedily placed it upon 
 a paying basis, After something more than a year, Mr. Cooper made sale of 
 his interest in the World, and July 14, 18SS, he began thi publication of The 
 Freeman, the only illustrated organ of the colored people that has ever been 
 attempted in the United States. The -Freg'/?iart stands very high in the jour- 
 nalistic circles of Indiana. It has a vride circulation, and controls a vast 
 political influence, though it can scarcely be called a political organ. It 
 leans toward the Republican vievr of political issues, but strikes sturdy 
 blovrs against the policy of that party whenever the manager does not agree 
 with prevailing methods.' Mr. Cooper has been denominated a Xegrowump 
 in political lines, and it is safe to call him the stiSest kind of an Independent. 
 He exercises a glorious influence for the advancement and sturdy independ- 
 ence of the Xegro race. 
 
 HON. JAS. A. HANDY. 
 
 • 
 
 Hon. James A. Handy, of Washington, D. C, was born in Maryland, 
 
 the m'Kher State of many emi ipnt blackmen, but barren in the production of 
 great white men, if we except the late Hon. Henry Winter Davis and the liv- 
 ing Judge Hucrh L. Bond. 
 
 James A. Handy, by nature, is the peer of any, and sturdily stands to-day 
 in company with the most advanced of the race. Reared in the midst of 
 slavery, he was debarred of even the commonest school advantages. In his 
 own words, the buck and saw were his books, while the wood wharf was his 
 school-room 
 
 As a man, he is characterized by a frankness and decision, which at 
 times assume even an air of rudeness. He is, in the broadest sense, a progres- 
 sive man: was the first to introduce the order of the Sons of Temperance 
 among his people in Baltimore. He has the credit of ranking high in the 
 Masonic Fra^ernitv. Last but not least, he was the Baltimore agent of the 
 Underground Railroad and Telegraph Company for the years 1856. '57, '58, 
 '59 and 1860, '61. He is at this tune Secretary of Finance of the great African 
 Methodist Episcopal Church at Washington, ^D. C, of which he has been a 
 
173 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 member thirty-eight years. Mr. Handy is a large tax payer and as a true 
 American citizen is willing to see the worthy soldiers fairly pensioned, but 
 thinks it but honest to deal justly with our former slaves. 
 
 Among the brightest and most active intellects of the negro race may be 
 safely classed the editor and proprietor of the Omaha Progress, a bright and 
 influential journal which has the confidence and support of the white and 
 black races. Mr. Barnett first saw the light of day at Huntsville, Ala., July 
 7, 1854. He was born of and reared by slave parents. When sixteen years 
 old, and after emancipation had become a fixed fact, he entered the Rusk 
 Institute, where he pursued his studies one year. His next step in life was 
 to procure additional scholastic culture, and he arranged for a night course 
 at the Fisk University, at Nashville, Tenn., where he had the good fortune 
 to secure employment from Dr. Greenleaf, then in charge of the U. S. Army 
 post at Nashville. Mr. Barnett attended night school for a period of four 
 years. After his university course, Mr. Barnett made his home in Louisville. 
 Ky., where he became the steward of the Prentice Club, and continued in 
 service for eight years, much to his personal advantage and to the general 
 satisfaction of the club membership. He then removed to Portsmouth, O., 
 where he engaged in business pursuits but met with financial reverses. He 
 next took a plac* as a laborer, where he wrought diligently for several 
 months, until his exchequer warranted further adventure in business for him- 
 self. He was married June 7, 1880, to Miss Alice Burns, a lady whose 
 acquaintance he had made during his residence at Louisville. His domestic 
 life has been one of complete happiness. Locating at Cleveland, Ohio, Mr. 
 Barnett's past experience enabled him to secure the place of front house man 
 in the Union Club, as he was an adept in club work. He resigned from the 
 club to take charge of the culinary department at Hatch & Thompson's fash- 
 ionable restaurant, where he was a prime favorite during a period of four and a 
 half years. Then, resolved to seek a home in the West, he wended his way 
 to Omaha, Neb. In his new home he first found employment at the Omaha 
 Club, but in a short time he took the management of Irwin's Gate City res- 
 taurant. He retired from that business to accept a position as collector for 
 the Hussey-Day Plumbing Company. At a later day he entered the field of 
 journalism and began the publication of the Omaha Progress October 5, 1889, 
 of which paper he is now sole owner. Mr. Barnett has achieved a high esti- 
 mation in Omaha, and is regarded as one of the men of influence of the city. 
 High honors await him in the future. 
 
 p. L. BARNETT. 
 
ADDENDA. 
 
 ITS 
 
 .JEREMIAH if. TVASHIXGTOX, OF CHICAGO, ILL. 
 
 Every town, every city, every village has its leader, and in this the colored 
 race has proven that they can keep step to the music of progress. The subject 
 of this s^ietch was born in. slavery, but was full of push and pluck and ambi- 
 tion. He has succeeded in giving himself a liberal education, and is to-day 
 regarded as one of the ablest pulpit orators in tlie country. He is not only an 
 orator, but is a leader and a church buildei, and possesse^s the personal mag- 
 netism that carries the people with him. Jeremiah M. AVashington was born 
 in Rockville, Maryland, in 1852. Early in life he evinced a disposition to 
 join the church, and he preached his first sermon in 1874 at Louisville, Ky., 
 where he organized and established Washington Chapel, a local church, and 
 he carried from this church to his first conference one hundred and eighty 
 financial members. His work from the very start was a success. He went 
 from Louisville to Madisonville, Ky., and remained there fourteen 
 months. In this time he rebuilt the 'church, and left it in a flourish- 
 ing condition, with one hundred and sixty active members. The leaders of 
 his church had noticed his wonderful work, and in 1877 sent him to St. 
 Louis, Mo., and it was here that his most remarkable work was performed. 
 He was in St. Louis three years, and in the same time he bought the ground 
 and built one of the largest and handsomest churches in that city (as in 
 Louisville, he named this church after himself — Washington Chapel), on 
 Morgan street. Rev. J. C. Temple is the present pastor of this church . He was 
 dubbed by the St. Louis newspapers " The Western Moses," and during his 
 work in St. Louis he left nine hundred active members to his charge. He 
 then went to Knoxville, Tenn., built one church at this place, and then to 
 Little Rock, Ark. He remained there two years, and then he came to 
 Indianapolis in 1884, and was two years at Jones' Tabernacle. Elder Wash- 
 ington has a large following in the church, and has been elected general 
 
lU 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 delegate three times at the Conference at Montgomery, Ala., New York, and 
 at New Berne, N. C. He was a prominent candidate for the Bishopric^ and 
 was once nominated for that important place. He located in Chicago the 9th 
 of February last and took charge of Washington Chapel in that city, located 
 on Dearborn street betwen Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth streets. 
 
 The writer can speak of Dr. Ricketts, in view of residence in the same 
 city with him, and hence for the reason that he has personal knowledge of 
 the fact that the doctor is highly respected in the city of his adoption. He is 
 a skilled physician, and has the professional sympathy and support of white 
 men who pursue the scientific Imes of surgery and medicine. Dr. Ricketts 
 was born April 3, 1858, in Henry county, Kentucky, of slave parents. After 
 emancipation and the freedom of the slaves his parents removed from Ken- 
 tucky to Missouri. In the home of his adoption the lad was enabled to pro- 
 cure a fair education, and his scholastic course was completed by graduation, 
 with honor to himself and his admiring friends, at the Lincoln University. 
 He received his diploma with credit and honor at the Commencement Exer- 
 cises of 1876. Four years later Mr. Ricketts took up his residence in Omaha, 
 where his industry and economy enabled him to take a full course of three 
 years' study and experience in the Omaha Medical College. He graduated 
 with honor in his class and took up his professional residence in the city of 
 his adoption. He has secured a fine practice and ranks high in the medical 
 fraternity. White surgeons frequently meet with him in consultation 
 respecting extreme cases, and have often invited his diagnosis of cases imme- 
 diately under his charge. Dr. Ricketts has taken an active part in public 
 affairs and is justly regarded as one of the important factors in the local 
 political situation of Omaha and Nebraska. 
 
 Bishop John M. Brown was born in Cantwell's Bridge, now called 
 Odessa, New Castle County, Delaware. The Bishop is a man of great 
 piety and energy. He believes that "what others can do he will do," and 
 he generally succeeds. He is a great friend to young men, always willing to 
 help the man up the hill of life who is aspiring with honest aims. He is 
 both a blessing and an inspiration to all among whom he dwells. He has 
 friends by the thousands, east, west, north and south. 
 
 DR. M. O. RICKETTS. 
 
175 
 
 DANIEL L. LAPS LEY. 
 
 This gentleman was born of slave parents in Caldwell county, Kentucky, 
 November 13, 1833. In slave days his mother was the property of Rev. R. 
 A. Lapsley, a Presbyterian clergyman. The parents of the subject of this 
 sketch were united in wedlock by the master and owner of the mother accord- 
 ing to the marriage rites of the Presbyterian faith. The Rev. Mr. Lapsley 
 having been called to the pastorate of a church at Nashville, he hesitated to 
 separate a family by taking a slave wife from the household of her husband. 
 The result was that the woman and her family were left in Kentucky under 
 a verbal agreement of the husband and father to purchase, at a low rate of 
 value, his wife and children. Unfortunately in May, 1846, the husband and 
 father died before his work of purchase was completed. Then, at the appeal 
 of the widowed mother, her former master, Rev. R. A. Lapsley, repurchased 
 the slave mother and children at about double the sum for which he had 
 agreed to sell them. The venture seriously embarrassed the devout pastor, 
 
 DANIEL L. LAPSLEY. 
 
 but his sons and daughters came to his relief and enabled the father to regain 
 a household of servants which had done much towards nursing and rearing 
 his own progeny in their infantile days. Daniel L. Lapsley, the oldest of 
 three slave children, with their aged mother, became inmates of their old 
 master's family, March 10, 1847, at Nashville. In that pious household, the 
 slave children were taught to read and write, one of their regular instructors 
 being J. W. Lapsley, the master's second son, who has subsequently been a 
 law -partner of Senator John F. Morgan, of Alabama, and who now holds a 
 judgship over one of the Alabama courts. At the outbreak of the Great 
 Rebellion, D. L. Lapsley, of whom this sketch is written, with two 
 other colored men, constituted a firm of barbers in Nashville. He received 
 instruction in appropriate branches of learning thrice a week from Prof. 
 Daniel Watkins, pursuant to a private agreement. After the war he became 
 a member of the board of education and assisted in the appointment of 
 teachers for the first colored schools. He also took an active part in the estab- 
 
ADDENDA. 
 
 lishment of the Baptist College, now known as the Roger William's univer- 
 sity. He was elected a justice of the peace in 1868, and again in 1870. In 
 1873 he was admitted to the bar and began a successful practice of the legal 
 profession. He served as one of the vice-presidents of the colored State Con- 
 vention at Memphis, in 1872. In January, 1890, Mr. Lapsley became a citizen 
 of Omaha, Neb., where he now resides. He is a valuable citizen and is doing 
 all in his power to elevate the standard of his race, North and South. 
 Wherever known, Mr. Lapsley commands the admiration, respect and con- 
 fidence of his white fellows-citizens. Integrity and honor are regarded as 
 unimpeachable traits of his personal character. 
 
 Hon. John G. Jones, of Chicago, Illinois, was born on the eighteenth day 
 of September, 1849, in the City of Ithaca, Tompkins county. State of New 
 York. At the age of ten years he emigrated to the City of Chicago and has 
 been a permanent resident ever since. He has advanced thus far in life by 
 his energy, determination and ambition, and to day commands the respect of 
 the most distinguished men, both black and white, throughout the couutry. 
 On the recommendation of the late Hon. John A. Logan, Senator of Illinois, 
 President U. S. Grant, in 1873, appointed him U. S. Commissioner to the 
 Island of Cuba to investigate the report as to whether colored people had been 
 captured on the coast of Florida and taken to Cuba and sold as slaves. The 
 reason Mr. Jones did not go was because it was soon found out by the American 
 Government that the matter had been amicably settled. 
 
 From early boyhood he possessed the irresistible desire to become a law- 
 yer. He commenced the study of law when he was a young man under the 
 instruction of the late W. W. O'Brien, Illinois' famous criminal lawyer; was 
 admitted to the bar to practice in all courts in 1883, and is recognized to be a 
 clear-headed lawyer and a forcible and eloquent speaker. He is plain, bold 
 and outspoken in his views on all questions; he is one of the leading coloied 
 masons of America, having advanced to the 33d degree, and is now the Lieu 
 tenant Commander of the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Scottish Riie 
 Masonry of the United States. Mr. Jones has done many acts to advance the 
 best interests of his race of people, which long will be remembered in the 
 hearts of his fellow countrymen. 
 
 Col. Alex, A. Jones, was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, 
 February 14th, 1852. He was born a slave, went with his parents to Boston 
 in 1859, attended the Phillip School in the west end of Boston two years. 
 In 1864 entered the army. After the close of the war he returned to 
 North Carolina. He is well known in Virginia, Washington, D. C, Indiana, 
 Mianesota and Iowa. Col. Jones has always been a Republican and has done 
 good work for his party. In businessprompt, faithful, accurate; as a jouinalist, 
 vivid, bright, animating, strong. As one of the leaders of his race he i's true as 
 steel. He is one of Nature's born orators, and leaves an impression upon his 
 hearers. As a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, he commanded 
 two Posts, one in Boston and one in Indiana. Was selected on Department 
 Commander Chase's staff , of the State of Indiana. He has been In and filled 
 with credit, places of trust in the post-office at Boston, Mass., in Custom 
 Department, also in the Pension office; is one of the most promirent and suc- 
 cessful workers of the African M. E. Church, a man who never tires working 
 for his race. 
 
 Rev. Geo. W. Gaines was born in Missouri, and might be termed a 
 self-made man. His work among his race has been crowned with much 
 success. He was elected a delegate to the National Convention from Mis- 
 souri in 1884. He is a faithful minister of the gospel. He was appointed to 
 the pastorate of Bethel Church, Chicago, in 1889, and reappointed in 1891 
 to the same charge; and elected almost unanimously by the Iowa Conftr- 
 ence to represent the convention in the General Conference to be held in 
 Philadelphia in 1892 Elder Gaines was a slave and had but few advan 
 tages, but to see and talk with him you would pronounce him a pro- 
 fessor of theology. 
 
177 
 
 Hon. F. L. Barnett, is a prominent man in social and political circles. 
 He is an able lawyer, and editor of the Gonsermtor — the oldest negro journal 
 in the United States. Judge Barnett is as true as steel to a friend. He has a 
 very valuable law practice and is remarkably successful. 
 
 C. F, Adams is one of the editors and owners of the Appeal, one of the 
 best known Afro-American illustrated weekly journals in America. He spent 
 some years abroad in the study of the German language, in which he is very 
 proficient. Mr Adams has a great many friends; he is a strong writer and 
 the Appeal, his paper, has a large circulation. 
 
 We could write for a month about remarkable negro men and women, for- 
 mer slaves, who have developed within the last twenty-five years, with but little 
 m )ney and help in life's struggles to aid them, and who now rank as the 
 equal, and many superior, in their respective professions to their white 
 brethren, who were educated and cared for with the proceeds of negro labor, 
 but space and time forbid further mention or extended notices, that in our 
 future editions of this book will receive our careful attention. 
 
 Council Bluffs, Iowa, August 27, 1891. 
 
 To those interested: 
 
 We have known Hon. W. R. Yaughan for many years. He was mayor 
 of Council Bluffs, Iowa, part of five years, and curator of Iowa two years. 
 In 1884 he had in New York several hundred thousand dollars of Council 
 Bluff bonds, with full written authority to sell the same at such price as he 
 thought best. The only bond over him was his ofiicial bond of $3,000. 
 He sold the bonds at par and accrued interest, and with the proceeds put 
 down some twelve miles of paving. We have always regarded Mayor 
 Yaughan as upright, honest, and as true as steel to his friends, or a cause 
 championed by him. Since his first residence, in 1869, with us he has been 
 the poor man's friend, white or black, and we are satisfied that his Ex-Slave 
 Pension bill and its cause will always be handled with sincerity and fidelity. 
 We can and do cheerfully endorse him as a man of brains, honor and irre- 
 pressibility, and fully entitled to your confidence and respect. 
 
178 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 Omaha, Neb , August 28, 1891. 
 
 To the Public: Hon. W, R. Vaughan, the aulhoi of the Ex-Slave Pen- 
 sion Bill introduced iu the fifty-first congress, has been a resident ( f Omaba 
 since 1886. We cheerfully concur in the letter of Mayor Macrae, and others 
 of Council Bluffs, Iowa, dated August 27th. 
 
 Mayor Vaughan is upright, honest and competent to consummate any of 
 his undertakings. We recommend and endorse him as in every way worthy 
 of your confidence. 
 
 Chicago, III., June, 1891. 
 
 To Our Republican Friends. 
 
 Qentlemeii: The bearer, Hon. W. R. Vaughan, Ex-Mayor of Council 
 Bluffs, Iowa, a resident of Omaha, is the author of the Ex Slave Pension bill 
 introduced in the 51st Congress. We take pleasure in introducing and com- 
 mending him to your favor. His novel undertaking has attracted Press, 
 Public and individual attention from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. Mr. 
 Vaughan is a Virginian by birth and a Democrat, but his pension movement 
 is in no way political, that is unless a candidate is nominated by some party 
 that openly admits his opposition to the bill. We think, however, that the 
 work is in line with Republican ideas, and as those whom the measure will 
 benefit are mostly Republicans, we trust you will render Mr. Vaughan all 
 possil)le aid. By so doing you will please us. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
ADDENDA. 
 
 179 
 
 SEMIANNUAL COUNCIL OF THE BISHOPS OF THE AFRICAN M. E. CHURCH OF 
 THE UNITED STATES, HELD AT CHICAGO, ILL., JUNE 1891. 
 
 The foUowiDg is a true copy of the report of the committee appointed by 
 the Board of Bishops, in official session at Chicago, III., June 25th, 1891. 
 The report was duly adopted. 
 
 We, your committee, to whom was referred the subject of Freedmen's 
 Pension Bill, as presented by the Hon. W. R. Vaughan: 
 
 After due consideration and examination do most heartily commerd the 
 plan, and will use our influence, to have every person entitled to it, have a 
 just pension. 
 
 Whereas, Hon W. R. Vaughan has introduced to the Conference his bill 
 now pending in the United States Congress; therefore, be it 
 
 Resolved, That we, the Conference, do hereby indorse said bill, and 
 further, that it be affixed to the report on Sta'e of Country. 
 
 Adopted by Iowa Annual Conference A. M. E. Church, Chicago, 111., 
 September 1st. 
 
 Lincoln, April 9th, 1891. 
 
 To the State and City Officials: The bearer of this, Hon. W. R. Vaughan, 
 has been a resident of Nebraska, for the past five years. I have had an inti- 
 mate personal acquaintance with him for several years previous, while he was 
 a resident of Council Blulls, Iowa, of which city he was at one time Mayor. 
 
 Lately, he has been publishing a Democratic paper in Omaha. Mr. 
 Vaughan is a staunch Democrat, a genial companion, and an intelligent gen- 
 tlemen; I take great pleasure in giving him this letter of commendation, and 
 in wishing him success in all his undertakings. 
 
 Very Respectfully, 
 
180 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 UNION PACIFC SYSTEM, LAW DEPARTMENT. 
 
 Omaha, Neb. June 22, 1891. 
 To My Brother BepuUicans: Col. W. R. Vaughan is engaged in the 
 publication of a very valuable book , especially designed for the benefit of 
 the colored race. Although a staunch democrat, Col. Vaughan holds very 
 high and correct opinions upon the political questions affecting the colored 
 people, and I cordially recommend his work to the Republicans of the 
 United States. 
 
 I also take pleasure in recommending Col. Vaughan as a worthy gentle- 
 man and good citizen. Respectfully submitted, 
 
 Omaha, Neb., July 21, 1890. 
 
 Hon. W. R. Vaughan. 
 
 Dear Sir: I received the papers which you sent to me. * * * You 
 know my sentiments with regard to the colored people, and that I have a 
 very hearty sympathy for the cause which you have so unselfishly undertaken. 
 With best wishes for your success, I am 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Ex-Mayor of Omaha. 
 Chicago, July 16, 1891. 
 
 Hon. W. R. Vaughan. 
 
 Bear Sir : When you first presented your Freedman's Pension Bill to me 
 I thought it a wild scheme and not worthy of consideration ; but, after hear- 
 ing you fully on the subject and considering your arguments carefully, I must 
 confess that I see merit in it. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER'S CHURCH. 
 
 Council Bluffs, Ia., Aug, 25, 1891. 
 To the Catholics of the United States : 
 
 The Honorable W. R. Vaughan, author of the Ex-Slave Pension Bill and 
 book, has been a resident of Council Bluffs, Iowa, and its chief executive 
 otficer for a number of years. Mayor Vaughan has always been a friend to 
 our people, and during the suffering in Ireland in 1879, he was the first to aid 
 us in shipping several cars of provisions to Ireland. I have never called on 
 him to aid our church, fairs, etc., in vain. He is my personal friend, and any 
 favors shown him will be highly appreciated and reciprocated by me. 
 
ADDENDA. 
 
 181 
 
 Chicago, June 29, 1891. 
 To Whom It May Concern: I have known Mr. W. R. Vaughan for a 
 number of years and am much interested in his proposed work, though I can 
 not say that I have had suflScient time to examine the scheme to give it my 
 entire approval. However, I am thoroughly convinced of his earnestness and 
 honesty of purpose and cordially commend him to those whom he may meet. 
 
 Yours Respectfully, 
 
 Detroit, Mich., August 12th, 1891. 
 
 Dear Sir: I hope you will receive from me an apology for not having 
 written you the letter I fully intended to, but I lost your address and the work 
 of the encampment so absorbed my thought that I was unable to attend to 
 anything else. Of course I am one of those who wish to see the negro 
 thoroughly cared for, but whether money paid would be as well for him as an 
 education offered him is a problematical question. 
 
 I confess the question is so vast that I have not had the time to give it 
 the thought I would like to do. Am buried in work that has accumulated 
 during the encampment, which, as I said before, has taken all my thought for 
 the past month. Sincerely Yours, 
 
 Office of Chairman Committee, Manufacturing and Commerce. 
 
 * Lincoln. Neb., June 18, 1891. 
 
 HoN.W. R. Vaughan, Chicago, 111. 
 
 3Iy Bear Mayor: I have written an article on your great and meritorious 
 work of pensioning those of the colored race now living in the United 
 States who were once held in involuntary servitude under the laws of this 
 country. I earnestly hope that your great work is meeting with that sup- 
 port and approval which your undertaking merits. Negro slavery was 
 either right or wrong. It was declared wrong — it was wrong. The 
 declaration on the part of the Government that it was wrong was a confes- 
 sion on behalf of the people of the United States; and that confession sim- 
 ply means that the negro people are human beings and that they are entitled 
 to a just and fair compensation from the Government for the" time during 
 which they were held in slavery and made the subject of taxation as well as 
 the basis of representation. This is an unanswerable conclusion. It is a 
 logical and a mathematical deduction, and the fact that long delayed but only 
 partial justice was done by the emancipation of negro slaves in the United 
 States should not be dignified as an argument, but rather as a subterfuge, why 
 they are not entitled to a fair and just compensation from the Government for 
 the time in which they were held in bondage. 
 
 The disenthralled four millions of blacks went forth from the plantations 
 and prison pens of the South like so many penitentiary convicts who have 
 either been pardoned or whose terms of punishment have expired — with this 
 difference, however; the negro ex-slave bore not the stain of crime when he 
 went forth into a new world to make his own way, yet he was beset by the 
 
182 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 same obstacles, impediments and opposition to his own advancement, in as 
 great a degree as those which ever confronted an ex-convict emerging from 
 merited punishment. The cases are numerous wherein persons unjustly con- 
 victed and imprisoned have recovered damages and compensation from the 
 State which suffered such injustice to be done. Why should not this rule 
 apply to all alike, regardless of the color of the skin? Your position and 
 attitude with reference to the race which you are so philanthropically 
 befriending is absolutely impregnable. Again wishing you great success, I 
 remain the friend of yourself and yours, 
 
 State Senator. 
 
 HEADQUARTERS DEMOCRATIC STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE. 
 
 Omaha, Neb., May 27, 1891. 
 
 To Our Democratic Friends. 
 
 Oentlemen: The bearer, Hon. W, R. Vaughan, ex-mayor of Council 
 Bluffs, Iowa, a resident of Omaha for several years, now president of the 
 Democrat Pub. Co., is the author of the Ex-Slave Pension Bill introduced in 
 the Fifty-first Congress. We take pleasure in introducing and recommend- 
 ing him to your favor. His novel undertaking has attracted press, public 
 and individual attention from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Mr. Vaughan 
 is a Virginian by birth and a true democrat. We hope and ask that you ren- 
 der him all possible assistance. By doing so you will please us. 
 
 Very respectfully. 
 
(Ecdor Will, 
 
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 189 
 
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190 
 
 ADDEN^DA. 
 
 LETTER OF THANKS, ETC. 
 
 I have been and am being favored by so many who feel an interest in 
 my work, seeking to right the Nation's wrong perpetrated on the negro race, 
 that I hardly know who to or how to express my appreciation for the kindness 
 shown. I Trill say, however, in behalf of 9,000,000 negroes, that such sym- 
 pathy and acts of brotherly justice will surely redound to your future happi- 
 ness and welfare, and will never be forgotten by the present and future gen- 
 erations. I desire to especially thank the following gentlemen for valuable 
 courtesies extended: 
 
 Hon. P. E. Studebaker, treasurer and business manager of the well- 
 known Studebaker Brothers' Manufacturing Company, a firm that has done 
 more to help the farmer and laborer than most any business men known to 
 the author. Studebaker Brothers have a national reputation as philanthrop- 
 ists; they have given thousands of dollars for the erection of churches and 
 benevolent inititutions, 
 
 P. S. Eustis, general passenger and ticket agent of the Chicago, Burling- 
 ton & Quincy railroad, has also placed the author of this book and Ex-Slave 
 Pension bill under lasting obligations. Mr. Eustis is a born railroad man, 
 quick to care for the interest of his company, liberal in his ideas, and thoughts 
 broad enough to grasp the fact that the friendship of 9,000,000 of negroes 
 for the Burlington system would prove beneficial to the stockholders of his 
 company. With George W. Holdredge as general manager of the Burling- 
 ton, at Omaha, Neb., a company with which he has been connected for almost 
 twenty years, and to which he is wedded in body and soul, the interest of this 
 splendid company will not be neglected in the hands of two men so competent 
 and broadgauged as Holdredge and Eustis. George M. Clark, of the firm of 
 George M. Clark & Co., whose factory and salesrooms are on Superior street, 
 Chicago, feels a deep interest in the negro race and the proposed Ex-Slave 
 Pension bill. He and his partners have extended courtesies and favors to us 
 for which we will ever feel grateful. James Barker, general passenger agent 
 of the grand old Monon Railway Company, has a great future before him as 
 a railroad man. He works very hard in the interest of his company. We 
 are indebted to him for valuable favors. Messrs. Juergens & Anderson, the 
 old, popular diamond house of State street, Chicago, are the gentlemen who 
 have the contract for making the Ex-Slave Pension Club gold emblem badge. 
 Their word and work are absolutely reliable, and the interest they have taken 
 in our movement is very gratifying. 
 
 The A. N. Kellogg Newspaper Company, the Western Newspaper Union 
 Company and the Chicago Newspaper Union Company are each managed 
 and controlled by first-class oflacers. Through their aid in supplying auxiliary 
 sheets throughout the United States to publishers, hundreds of newspapers 
 have been established that otherwise could not have existed, and Afro-Amer- 
 ican newspapers can easily be established chiefly through this system. We 
 are under obligations to all three of these firms. Hon. E. St. John, General 
 Manager of the C. R. I. & P. Railway; F. A. Miller, Assistant General Pas- 
 senger and Ticket Agent C. M. & St. P. Railway ; O. W. Ruggles, General 
 Passenger and Ticket Agent Michigan Central; D. I. Roberts, Assistant Gen- 
 eral Passenger Agent Erie Railway, and J. C. Tucker, General Northern 
 
ADDEXDA. 
 
 191 
 
 Agent of the Big Four Route, have each placed the author under obligations 
 for courtesies extended, for -^hich the friends of the Ex-Slave Pension Bill, 
 as well as the author of this Book and Bill, will ever feel grateful, and be 
 ready to reciprocate. In fact, there are hundreds who have manifested 
 kindness and friendship, that we cannot in this issue mention individually. 
 
 In conclusion, it is to be hoped that if the reader has perused without preju- 
 dice the pages in this little volume, his judgment of honesty and right 
 will let his influence and voice be instrumental in securing the passage of the 
 " Yaughan Ex-Slave Pension Bill," that the wrongs of a nation may be partly 
 righted. The time has come when by-gones should be by-gones and sympa- 
 thetic spirits and human companionship should unite together for righting 
 the greatest wrong which is recorded in the history of civilization. The day 
 of real Negro Freedom is drawing near. 
 
Purchase Your Tickets 
 
 VIA THK 
 
 Through Trains from NEW YORK, BOSTON, PHILADELPHIA, Etc., connect in 
 Union Depots at CHICAGO, PEORIA ^ndST. LOUIS with daily 
 trains running over the '* Burlington Route " to 
 
 DENVER, OMAHA, CHEYENNE, DEADWOOD, KANSAS CITY, 
 ST. PAUL AND MINNEAPOLIS, 
 
 ~ WITHOUT CHANGE OF CARS — 
 
 At its Western Terminals it also connects in Union Depots with daily through trains 
 
 yia the various routes for 
 SAN FRANCISCO, LOS ANGELES.SALT LAKE, CITY OF MEXICO, 
 YOSEMITE VALLEY, 
 
 And all Points in 
 
 COLORADO and on the PACIFIC COAST 
 
 At its Northwestern terminals it again connects in Union Depots 
 with daily trains for 
 
 PORTLAND, YELLOWSTONE PARK, VICTORIA AND 
 PUGET SOUND POINTS. 
 
 Are run via the Burlington Route to Omaha, Council Bluffs, Denver, Kansas City, 
 Atchison, and St. Joseph, equipped with 
 THROUGH SLEEPING CARS. RECLINING CHAIR CARS, DINING CARS AND COACHES. 
 
 The above Route is the line selected by the United States Government to carry the 
 Fast Mail. It is the only line running Sleeping Cars between Chicago and Denver over 
 its own lines. It is the only Double-Tracked Railroad between Chicago and the Mis- 
 sissippi River. 
 
 For full and complete information regarding the Burlington Route, C. B. & Q. R. R., 
 call on any coupon ticket agent of its own or connecting lines, or address 
 
 IP. S. ETUSTIS, 
 
 General Passenger and Ticket Agent, .... CHICAGO, ILL 
 
Date Due