Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-01-09
NOT ENTIRELY HARMONIOUS.
Some Colored Men Who Oppose the Passage
of the Election Bill.


LAST NIGHTS MEETING IN AN UPRoAR-REso-
LrrIoNs APPROVING AND URGING THE Bill
FINALLY ApoPTEp--TAcrIcs OF THE OPPOSITION
The course Of the public meeting Of colored
citizens at Asbury Church last evening was
not smooth and calm. There were eddies and
counter currents, to say nothing of slight
squalls, and it was mainly due to the skin and
GOODNESS of the presiding officer, Rev. James A.
Townsend. that shipwreck was avoided and the
desired port was at last reached. The meeting
as the published call announced, was intended
to be q general conference. embracing the col
ored citizens Of the several states temporarily
residing in the District and the citizens of the
District, to consider what action they can take
in furtherance Of the passage Of the federal
| election bill. As it turned out. some citizens
| were present who were opposed to the election
| bull, and their opposition was SO pronounced
| That the meeting was about an hour and hall
| IN getting down to business. While the oppo-
nents Of the bill were in the minority. in fact,
4 an extremely small minority, not numbering,
| when a standing vote was taken. more than
| three or four, yet they made up for lack Of
| numbers by their activity. Mr. Il. A. Dawson
led the hope of the minority in this contest,
/ which was carried on pleasantly enough, owing
| to the fairness of the chairman, who pursued
the policy of giving everybody fair show.
4 The OPENING PROCEEDINGS.
The meeting was called to order by Mr..
John F. Cook. As the audience was not very
large, and as some of the speakers expected
were not present. it was suggested that the
] meeting be adjourned to another time. This
! did not meet with tie approval of those pres
/ ent and it was decided to go ON with the meet
| ing. Then Mr.. Cook made brief address, in
| which he said that it was an anomaly for col
ored citizens to meet for the purpose OF urging
that the rights guaranteed under the Constitu-
ton should be enforced This was a question
that interested all citizens, whether white or
| colored.
! Rev. Mr.. Townsend. who ia the recorder of
| the general land office. was then chosen chair
man, and in taking his place he spoke briefly
/ in regard to the objects of the meeting and
said that he believed that all the colored people
| in the country favored the passage of the cleo
| tions bill. Prayer was then offered by Rev.
George Lee and Mr.. j. Z. Bruce was chosen
| secretary.
| ME-. GIEAvEs' LIST.
Mr.. Il. H. Gleaves then came forward with q
roll of paper in his hand and said that the
meeting had been called under the auspices Of
the Interstate Political and Social Relief Assoc
citation and 4 committee of that organization
had prepared list of vice presidents and
! officers for the meeting.
Decided objection made by Mr.. Dawson
to having list of officers forced on the meeting.
| He said that it public meeting. the pre-
| siding officer had already been elected and he
favored the election of the other officers by the
| meeting. He therefore moved that commit
| tee be appointed to nominate vice presidents.
| This motion was agreed to and as the selection
| of the committee was left to the chairman he
| appointed Mr. GleayeS chairman and the
| committee retired. A committee on resolutions.
| of which Mr.. Lewis II. Douglass was chairman
was also appointed and that committee retired
to deliberate. While the committees were out
| Mr. Dawson called attention to the fact that he
had brought to the meeting a number of
| copies of speeches of Senator Spooner and Hig-
gins on the election bill for general distribu-
| ton.
The chairman thanked Mr. Dawson for his
trouble and remarked that those speeches, es-
pecially the one by Senator Spooner, ought to
be reSd by every man on earth and angel in
| heaven.
| THE LIST APPROVED.
Presently Mr.. Gleaves and his committee
returned and presented long list of vice presi-
dents, which comprised as far possible a
representative from each state of the Union.
| Objection was made by Mr.. Dawson to this
| list and he proceeded in emphatic style to
| denounce the practice of using the names of
| men who were not present and whose consent
had not been obtained to give authority to the
proceedings of the meeting. He spoke Of the
| list a cut and dried affair
These remarks elected lively fire Of words
1 iIOAu pdTts VI TIC iutltHCt anu Tue meeting
becoming somewhat noisy the chairman asked
| that better order be preserved, as a religious
| meeting was in progress in the room below
! which would be disturbed. Finally, after
numerous points of order and good deal of
talk had been INDUCED in. the meeting ap-
proved Mr.. Gleaves list.
REV. Mr.. LEES SARCASM
At this point Rev. Mr.. Lee remarked that he
was obliged to leave the meeting. He explained
that no had a al in in al,
ard, with cutting sarcasm, aimed mainly at Mr.
Dawson, he remarked that he believed he could
get on better with sinners than with false re-
| publicans and bitter democrats. He had come
| TO the meeting, he said, to hear speeches in re-
gard to the elections bill and not discussion of
parliamentary points.
| THE RESOLUTIONS.
Then the committee on resolutions returned
and Mr.. Douglass submitted the report. The
series of resolutions set forth the denial of
rights of citizens in certain portions of the
country; that the recen: action of the Senate
in the matter Of the elections bill tends to create
a doubt AZ to the faithfulness of the republican
party: therefore, il was resolved that every con-
| sideration of good government makes it i'm
perative that the Constitution should be en-
| forced by appropriate legislation and that pro-
| lection should be given to class of citizens
| from Outrage and wrong promised by the re-
/ publican platform of 1883, and winch the reso-
lutions state held the colored voters to the sup.
port of the party at a time when in the state Of
New York such support absolutely neces-
| sary.
| Col Perry Carson at once moved that the
| resolutions be adopted. But before the motion
! could be put u substitute was offered by Mr. j.
A. Sembly OF Maryland, which was read By the
| secretary.
| COUNTER RESOLUTIONS.
As these resolutions were directly opposed to
A . - IL IL
was listened to with surprise that was too
great for expression at the time. The resolu-
tons were carefully prepared and stated in
concise Germs that the passage of the elections
bill would revive the feeling between the races
| OF the reconstruction period, that it would en-
gender a race strife. that the people of the
| country were opposed to legislating on matters
which time only will regulate, and that the
colored people oppose the bill because its
passage would be disastrous to their colored
brethren In the south. 1t was therefore urged
that the senate be commended in laying aside
this bill and that thanks be extended to Sena-
tors Teller. Stewart, Wolcott, Shoup and other
leagues for their action on this bill
LAID UNDER THE TABLE.
As soon as the reading of the resolutions was
concluded the audience recovered sufficiently
from the shock caused by this audacity to
make protest, which took the form of an
array Of men in all parts of the house sho on ting
and gesticulating 10 the chairman FINALE
quiet was restored, enough at least to make a
motion TO be heard by a colored brother who
moved with great emphasis To Law the snbs,;