The Indianapolis leader. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1879-1890, 1881-08-20
Register of the q. S. Treasury.

heglSIer OF Ine
We present to the readers OF The Leader
to-day the portrait of one of the most truly
self-made men our country has produced,
ex-senator Blanche X. Bruce, Register of
the Treasury of the Unred States.
Blanche X. Bruce was born in Prince
Edward county, Virginia, March l, 1S41'
and hence is just forty years of age, only
entering the golden prime of life.
His education was acquired chiefly at
Oberlin College, where he spent some years
pursuing special studies. During his entire
official life, however, he has been great
reader and close student OF history, litera-
ture and political science.
Leaving Oberlin about the beginning of
the reconstruction period, he chose Missis-
sippi as field, offering large possibilities for
the new born citizen, in which State he be-
came planter in 1869.
When the first reconstructed Legislature
assembled, he was made Sergeant-at-arms of
the Senate. On the adjournment of the
Legislature, he was appointed Assess IT of
Taxes for the County Of Bolivar" by Gov
ernor James l.. Alcorn, to fill out an une X
pired term. So satisfactorily did he discharge
| his duties that he was subsequently elected
| Sheriff and tax collector of the county. AT
the expiration of his first term he was unani-
mously reelected for second, there being
no opposing candidate; thus showing the
hold he had on the popular heart and the
clean handed manner in which he discharg-
ed the responsible trusts committed to his
! care Mr.. Bruce was also elected Superln-
| tendent of Public Schools for his county,
member of the Mississippi Levee Board, and
was made Levee Commissioner and Tax
| Collector for ali the boards in his county.
The position of Colonel of Militia was also
conferred upon him. thus giving him the
military title so essential to a'Southern gen.
tleman."
The aggregate bond of Colonel Bruce for
the several positions held was $4,000, and
it is fact worthy Of remark that in a
county in which nearly all the taxable
property YVES owned by ex-rebels and Dem
ocrats, Colonel Bruce never had the slight
est difficulty in making this large bond.
In the summer of 1873 Colonel Bruce
was urged to allow the use of his name for
Republican nomination for Governor of
toned, not only by the press of his State, but
throughout the country. When the Re-
publican Convention assembled at Jackson,
he was, undoubtedly, the first choice of a
large number of the delegates, but he de-
clined to allow his name to go before the
Convention, it having been suggested to his
friends that the nomination of Mr.. Ames
for Governor would leave clear field for
Colonel Bruce to the United States Senate,
which afterwsrd proved to be true.
The colored people of Mississippi had a
pardonable pride in desiring to see their
State send to the United States Senate a
representative man of their race.
On the assembling of the Legislature
Colonel Bruce was with great unanimity
nominated for the long term to the Senate
by the Republican Legislative caucus, and
on February 5, 1874 he was elected by the
Legislature of Mississippi to the United States
Senate for the term of six years. He took
his seat in the Senate on the 5th of March
1875.
During his entire term of service in the
Senate he was treated with marked courtesy
by nearly every Senator, without regard to
politics. Many of the most ultra Demo
Gratis we're foremost in marks of personal
kindness and courtesy. A warm personal
attachment grew up between SenatorsBru
and Conkling, which has never been broken.
In token of his esteem the Senator'S only
child bears the name of the distinguished
ex-senator from New York.
Senator Bruce is the only colored man
who ever presided over the u s. Senate, an
honor which was frequently conferred upon
him during his term.
He was a member of the important Sen
ate Committees on Pensions, Education
and Labor, and was Chairman of the Com.
mittees on Mississippi Levees, and Freed
mems Bank. occupying the latter position
by the courtesy of the Democratic Senators
who constituted majority of the Commit
tee When Senator Brrce's Committee tool
charge of the Freedmen's Bank affairs, the,
found three Commissioners living off OF tn
| funds of the unfortunate depositors of thi
rotten concern, at salaries of So 600 apiece
, These the Senator quickly displaced and pu
. the business in charge of a man at 1000
year, thus, ut one stroke making net saw
irg to the creditors of $4,000 annually.
t On June "a, 1878, Senator Bruce wa
J., married to Miss Josephine Wilson, next t
y the eldest of the four accomplished daugh
a ters of DR.. Joseph Wilson, of Cleveland, {
9 the happy couple sailed Immediately fror
!, New York for Queenstown. They travele
q over lrelanu, Engidhu, Ccotiahu, rIaho
. Italy, Germany, and, in fact, throughor
,, Continental Europe. The Senator w,
J, everywhere received and treated with di
e tinguished consideration by the dignitari'
d of Europe.
1t Throughout the length and breadth
T, of the country, he found no place in whic
n the color of his skin subjected him to insu
/ or the slightest inconvenience, save possibl
= =. the manifest natural curiosity of many
n see the only representative of the Neg
% race in the United States Senate.
n Returning home in time for the regul'
session of Congress, the Senator and