The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1884-04-29

N.I
Brief sketches Of ORetAAg guf0Ae0
stasesHea Of Te-day-No. 4.
J.F. FITZGERALD.
Hon. Aueustus H. Garland, United States Senator
from Arkdnsas
The Hon. A. Fl. Garland is Tennesseean by
birth, though his father removed to Arkansas in
1888, when he was only about q year old He
was educated at 81. Joseph's and st. Mary's Col.
leges in Kentucky. but returned to Arkansas and
became q practicing lawyer In Washington, in
that State, in 1885, aving just attained his ma
jority. In 1856 he removed TO Little Rock.
MIR. Garland was delegate to the State Con-
ventiOn that passed the ordinance Of secession in
| 1851 a member of the Provisional Congress that
same year, and also of the Confederate Congress,
| serving in both the House and Senate, being .
member of the latter body at the close of the
| war. In 1866 he was elected to the United
| States Senate, bat was not allowed TO take his
| seat ON account of what Was termed his unre>
pentant" attitude towards the government. He
| then took TO the Supreme Court of the United
| States the test oath question, and trumphantly
gained his case.
In 1874 he became GoverDar Of Arkansas !
and in 1876 was again elected by the Legislature,
| without opposition, to the United States Senate,
| as q Democrat to succeed the Hon. Powell Clay
ton, Republican, and took his seat on March 9th,
| 1877 He was reelected in 1888
Though Southern in all his sympathies, and An
| ardent advocate of States rights al the opening
of the civil war, and though he served the cause
of the South to which every fibre of his heart re-
sponded faithfully, and with all the earnestness
Of his nature, until the end OF the war, yet when
the important questions involved therein were
placed beyond dispute by the termination Of that
saddest and most bitter of bloody controversies
Mr.. Garland quietly accepted the situation, and
few years later when Governor OF his State de-
voted himself with equal energy and with an
untiring assiduity 10 the work of recuperation,
taking also an active interest in the education OF
the enfranchised cOlored race.
In a recent speech upon the "Blair educational
BILL after arguing with great ability the consti-
tutionality of the measure, when asked by one OF
the Senators from Maine If there was any prcju
dice against the education of the colOred chill
dren in Arkansas he replied in his SIMPLE earnest
way: "If was now about 10 utter the last
words l ever expected TO say on this earth
would say frankly that there is not 80 far as l
know; and little further on will attempt to
show that we want TO educate the colored peo-
pie, and that it is very important to US that they
should be educated When I was
Governor OF the State of Arkansas there was rs
tabished normal school at the town of Pine
Bluff. appointed a colored man tn" Superin-
tendent, and the Professor and President of that
school, and l am happy to say receive from
him now regular reports that his school is pros
pering and those reports that he makes are cor
robarated by the citizens around and about it"
He then went on TO say:
I'VE may debate as much as we please about
the theoretical question, that Oft-repeated one,
whether the cOlored man can be educated but in
my judgment ii is something that never will be
settled l know in many instances cOOreG peO-
pie have been educated, and do know that as
citizens they have the franchise in their hands
and have right to the hOnors of this Govern
ment, which has been accorded to them now by
all the States; and this being so, effort should
be made in the direction of improving and ele-
vating them. If they are to be citizens they
should be made the very best Of ciiz"ns. They
should be made. if possible, the most accom-
pshed Of citizens They should know the
value of the ballot that is put in their hands !;
they should know The value of civil rights; and
for one as took the stump in favor OF the pres
ent constitution Of Arkansas and was the first
Governor under it, did not mean 10 humbug
anybody then. nor do l mean to humbug any
one now. want all races in this country to be
brought up to the very highest phase of e1nca-
tinp brought tho very front rank of knowl-
edge and information. 1t is rs important to the
people with whom they are thrown daily that
they be educated as it is to themselves.
/ do not believe. so help me heaven, that there
is any prejudice on the part of the educated
classes in the State of Arkansas, to which my
knowledge is confined principally, to the educa
ton of the colOIed people as far and as much as
the means given to them will enable them 10 do
So III we nave uOnc our DeSt anu are CODtlnu-
ing to do our best, as this precedent has been es
tablished all along the liue from the earliest his
tory of the Government. with this accumulated
mass of population upon US, it seems to me there
is but one duty, and that is to vote this aid. If
not in the particular shape in which the Senator
from New Hampshire has proposed it, let us In
good faith address ourselves to putting it in
proper shape and rendering this aid.
II say with that aid we can meet in q reason
able, an honorable, and a competent way this
great exigency, and for one look upon this as
the presentation now of the question, Are we to-
gether upon the great question of the day? Ger
tainly, in the name of heaven, after twenty
years nearly of peace. we ought to be a unit
upon some one question, and net be standing in
the shadows of the past and fighting our battles
over again, but doing something for the advanc-
ing and fast approaching furture. Already by
reason of circumstances-the blame OF which
lay vt no mans dOor-many parts of the country
have been utterly destitute Of the facilities Of
education, and in the region from which come
we have not been able to educate our children
to grow up as they ought to do"
Senator Garland, though not an orator, is con-
sdered one of the most able jurists in the coun-
try. He has the reputation of consuming less
time in the Senate than any of the prominent
members of that body, and of saying more,
within the same space of time, than almost any
other Senator upon the floor, having remarkable
powers of concentration and condensation of
both thoughts and speech. He puts forth his
views generally in pointed, concise, and forci-
Gle manner, and upon certain occasion
when apologizing to the Senate for trespassing
unavodably upon its time at an unseemly hour,
he said that he had kept an estimate of the time
he dad occupied in the Senate during two years,
and that it was something less than five hours.
A strong, rugged character; rock Of ada
mant an uncut diamond such is the Senator
from Arkansas.
Firm and decided in his convictions, with a
sound judgment and an iron will, Senator Gar
land stands among his compeers in the Senate
noble. honorable, and manly man, and though
his State has bestowed upon him the highest
honors which it is In her power to confer, he
bears them with simple and unaffected mod
esty, and in social intercourse 10 one of the
most unassuming Of men.
N. O. Times- Democrat, 19th.]
A New BufldinG for the Exposition.
In our report OF the Exposition, published
esewh here, will be found telegram from Direc-
tor General Burke at Washington, requesting
n ohoir 0f k,x;lI