Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-07-04
THE NEGRO IN CONGREss.
New York World.

NV IVA NN.At@-
OF the six negroes in Congress but
one excited any notice during the ses-
sion that has Just closed-ElliOtt, OF
SyQ.h Carolina, and he only because Of
2 single speech which was supposed To
h, remarkable because 1t did emanate
from Il negro. Better speeches were
made everl- day by white men which
provoked no comment. The other
rspresentatives Of the black and
mulatto people IN COngress-Rai- :
nov. Cain, Walls, Ransier and
Lynch-were complete nOnentities. We
notice this in no spirit of prejudice, but
because the fact has political and
social value. These SIX cOlored men
may properly be supposed to be the
pick of their race, the best representa-
tiyes of its intelligence and culture.
One of them is serving his third, and
two of them their second terms in Con-
Dress. so half of the number have had
some Congressional experience. And
vet, immediate representatives. though
they be of a race numbering four MIL
lions of people, not one of them has
originated measure nor put forth an
idea, not one has distinguished himself
by committee work, not one has ap-
peared above the dull level of medioc-
rity except Elliott, who made one
speech which occasOned notice because,
as we have said, it was made by negro.
Lynch, it is true, has also made
speech, but 1t was IN a Republican
caucus, in which he declared that no
matter how bad the Republican party
might be the negroes would stick to 1t,
because it had given them freedom
Old Daddy Cain is noted character
at home IN South Carolina, where much
of his time is consumed In defending
himself in suits brought against him
for alleged corrupt practices. He Is a
Methodist preacher, edits a small re-
ligious and political weekly paper.
which is a curiosity in literature, and
would drive Josh Billings wild with
envy if he should seeit, and is general
ly regarded as a good-humored and
amusing old darky. Rainey Is a
Charleston ex-barber, who abandoned a
trade in which he stood first among all
councillors to become a statesman with
out reputation. Walls and Ransier
are plausible, talkative young negroes
who control the colored politics OF their
respectiye localities. The six picked
men of the negro race sit IN Congress
as mere lay fgures-sit there aPpa
rently ON sufferance, nodded at patron
izingly by casual Republican member
and IGNORED almost wholly by the rest
of the House. What are we to learn
from this failure of the negro IN state
craft? Shall we put it together withthe
failare of the negro youths at West
Point and the incOnspicuous positions
reached by negroes who have entered
the learned professions, and conclude
that the race, as a whole, is incapable
of rising much above the intellectual
AVERAGE which has characterized 1t
since It has been known In history: Or
shat we except the plea of its partlular
friends and believe that 1t Is emerging
from his childhood and needs Orly the
white mans forty centuries of culture
and experience to rival him In his IN
tellectual achievements? The question
is one of Importance, because 1t bears
upon the immediate future of our poll
ties. our social condition, and our ma'
terial prosperity,
TIM mote We are 0hli9eti To do, the more