Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-01-15

ties and Promising Nothing.
CLEVELAND, Jan. 14.--The colored del
egation visited Mentor to-day and waited
upon Gen. Garfield at his home The
delegation was composed of r. B. Elliott,
Samuel Lee, D. A. Stroker, of South Car
ollna; Henry Curry, Texas; JAS. B. Deve-
aux, Georgia; Geo. W. Price, Jr, Geor-
gia; l.. Madison, JAS W. Hood, John A.
Leary, j. H. Harris, Stewart Ellison,
North Carolina. On being received by
Gen. Garfield in the parlor, Mr.. Elliott,
spokesman, presented verbose address,
charging that their race was unjustly
treated by the ruling white class of the
south, and that the machinery of the
courts, both State and federal, was so con-
structed as to afford them
no relief. A special COM
plant in the address was lack of edu-
cational facilities, as remedy for which
a national system of education for the
toiling masses is recommended. The ad-
dress also urged upon the President elect
the Importance of appointing none but
stalwart Republicans to positions in
the South, of whom reasonable per-
centage should, of course, be colored
men, and closed with glorifcation of
colored valor as displayed in the late war,
and an implied threat of class or color
action against the Republican party un-
less their claims were better considered
in the future than they had been in the
past.
Cen. Garfield responded in the follow
ing language: General Elliott and gen.
tlemen: I thank you for your congratu-
lations on the successful termination of
the great campaign that recently closed,
and especially for your kind allusion to
me personally for the part bore in that
campaign What I have done, what 1
have said, concerning your race and the
great problem that your presence on this
continent has raised, / have said as q
matter of profound conviction, and hold
to with all the meaning of the words en-
ployed in expressing it. What you have
said in regard to the situation of your
people, the troubles that they
encountered, the evils from which they have
suffered, and still suffer, 1 listened to with
deep attention, and shall give it full measure
of reflection. This is not the time or the place
for me to indicate anything as to what shall
have to say and do by and by in an official
way, but this may say: Inoted as peculiarly
significant one sentence in the remarks of Gen.
Elliott, to the effect that the majority of citi-
Zens, as he alleges, in some portions of the
South, are oppressed by the minority. If this
be SO, why is 1t SO? Because the trained man
is two or three men in one in comparison
with an unframed man, and outside of politics
and outside of parties, that suggestion is full,
hriro ofrr11 Of eli fbo
to make the majority always
powerful over the minority is to make its
members as trained and intelligent as the mi
nority itself. That brings the equality of cit
izenship, and no land can confer and maintain
in the long run a thing that is not upheld
with reasonable degree Of culture and intell-
gence. Legislation ought to do all it can.
cate that education of your race in my judg-
ment lies at the base of the final solution of your
great question, and that cannot be altogether
in the hands of the State or national govern
ment. The government ought to do all that
it properly can, but the native hungering and
thirsting for knowledge that the Creator plant
ed in every child must be cultivated BY the
parents of these childreA to the best possible
degree of their ability, SO that the hands of the
people shall reach out and grasp in the dark
ness the hands of the government extended to
help, and by that union the effect of time will
bring what mere legislation alone cannot i'm
mediately bring.
rejoice that you have expressed SO strong
ly and earnestly your views in regard to the
necessity of your education. | have felt for
years that That was the final solution. These
efforts that are humble and comparatively out
of sight are in the long run the efforts that
tell. have sometimes thought that the men
that sink Golfer dam into the river and work
for months in anchoring great stones to build
the solid abutments and piers,
whose work is by and by flooded by
the water and out of sight, do
not get their share of the credit. The gaudy
structure of the bridge that rests on these
piers, and across which the trains thunder, is
the object that strikes the eye of the general
public great deal more. The sunken piers
and hard work, the educational growth and
the building up of industry, the economy and
all that can help to be the foundation of real
prosperity, is the work that in the long run
tells.
Some Scottish poet said: ooh, put in the
mouth of some prophet to say that the time
would come when Bertram's right and Ber-
tram's might shall meet on Elligowan's
hight" And it is when the might and right
of people meet that majorities are never op-
pressed by minorities-
Trusting, gentlemen, that you may take part
in the, earnest work of building up your race
from the foundation into the sOlidity of intel
ligence and industry and upon this basis at
last see your rights recognized, is my personal
wish and hope for your people.
Mr.. Elliott then introduced Bishop Hood as
the bearer of an address from the board of
bishops of the African NJ. E. Zion church,
which Bishop Hood read.
After the customary congratulations the
delegation returned to Chicago.