Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-04-21
The Ono Co1ored Senator.
From lady correspondent Of the seyracu

From q lady correspondent Of the Seyracuse
On. ~ journal.
Branch B. Bruce, with an odd,
suggestive name, is the only colored
man in tho Senate. He is a native
of Virginia, received a limited edu-
cation, became planter, a member
of the Mississippi Levee Board, and
was Sheriff and tax collector, and
now represents the State of Missis-
sippi. This is all the information
the gentleman deigns to give in the
public record. Whether he was
born a slave, how he came in posses
sion of means, and where he receiv-
ed his education, are points he per-
haps deemed of no interest to the
public. He is bachelor Of thirty
five, of good height, erect and of
manly proportions, above medim size,
his appearance being suggestive of
delicacy rather than of robustness.
The African lineaments are seen, not
so much in his complexion, which is
very light-of a warm, rather than
of yellow hue-as in the contour of
his full, gopher-like cheeks, and broad
short neck. His hair is slightly
wavy, side-whiskers and mustache
dainty, and his toilet, without being
foppish, is fully up to the require
ments of society, and he has the air
of a high-bred gentleman. He sue
ceeds Pease, a white man. The only
colored man who has been previously
honored with a seat in the august
body, was Revels, whose term has
expired. Thus Mr.. Bruce stands
alone in the midst of the chosen wis
dom of all the states, the sole repre-
sentative of the colored people. Easy,
affable, polished in manner and
graceful in movement, he is at home
in all the little conventionalities
which mark the man Of culture.
Simple, genial, self-forgetting, he
bears himself with quiet, senatorial
dignity, as if unconscious of any diff
ference between himself and his
peers, his modest, unobstrusive self
possession disarming any antagonist
spirit that might arise from his novel
position. Unlike Reyels, he is not
obsequious, a trait which is almost
inseparable from the race; but while
paying all due Difference to others,
he never forgot to respect himself.
In every regard he is refined and
heightened, and all in all, marvellous
" we'll fitted for his new and rather
trying role-
His late speech was a calm and
earnest appeal to his brother Sena-
tors for the welfare of his race, evinc-
ing a manly determination that,
Moses-like, neither the ease nor the
honors he enjoys, shall make him for
getful Of the interests of those who
are still denied some of their dearest
rights. The only time he has indulg-
ed in vindictiye reflections on the
floor of the Senate was in executive
session, and then he asserted not his
own claims, but those of his people.
A stranger, at night in railway car,
beside Senator Bruce, might converse
with him till morning and never
once suspect him to be other than a
white man. He is, in calibre and
breadth of reading, above the average
of Senators before the war, and fully
up to the standard of the present
representation, in all the qualities re-
quired by the exalted position; and
he as fairly as ably represents the
men of his State, planters, black and
white, as does Merrrimon, of North
Carolina, represent his constituents.
The term of Senator Bruce extends
to.lSSl.