The Portland daily press., 1892-11-23
THE NEGRO POLITICIAN.
The Place He Occupies in Southern
Politics.
Scenes of the FIRST Election After tho
Close of the War-AIways Against the
Whites-RecolIections of an Old
Time Southerner.
fcopYR1aHr. 1921

fcoPYRIGHT, 1927
To write of the negro on election day
and not have the paper political is al
most impossible, for the negro is moth
ing if not political, and election day, OF
all days in the year, is that on which
his politics become concentrated. AL
the rest of the time he bears or may
bear different relation to the body,
polite and social He may be a citizen,
q laborer, a servant, a friend, but as
election day approaches he begins to
shed these characters somewhat as a
locust does his shell jacket, and on
election day he emerges-a full-hedged
politician.
This is the chief cause of the trouble
which has existed in the south between
him and the whites, and, however de-
plorable it may be, until different dis
position interyenes on his part, it is apt
to continue a cause of trouble. This Ia
not intended to be political, for the fact
| that the negro is republican is an acct
| dent. He might be democratic and the
same thing would exist. He began re-
publican natrrally-as naturally as the
white of the south began his post-bel-
lum career democratic. He has remained
republican because the white has re-
NAMED democratic; and were the
whites to suddenly wheel around and
become republican the negro would as
| suddenly become the opposite. This is
| the key to much that has gone misun-
| derstood. and when it shall be recog-
| nized we shall be in fair way to begin
to rectify mistakes and to solve the
great problem.
Nv first recollection of an election
was the first at which the negroes
voted. remember the poll was a
| few miles from my old home at Beaver
| Dam depot, in the long, low. brick de-
| pot building, which had been built to
stand even fire after Stoneman and
| Sheridan in their raids had twice burnt
! the wooden building. Once they de-
| stroyed along with it three days ra-
lions stored there for Gen. Lees army,
| which seemed rather waste of the
raw materih to us boys who had not
| had a taste of coffee or sugar IN two
| years. The ballot box,S or perhaps
there were two, cannot recollect, was
| on a bench in the wide door at the end,
| and think we were taken over to see
the spectacle of the negroes voting. !
remember was struck with the small
ness of the box, about which | had
heard SO much talk. had expected to
| find it as large as wood box at least,
| if not of the big white boxes in which
| the servants sswinter clothes used to
come from Richmond. It was not big
ger than a tea chest; and, in fact, have
never got over feeling that it is some
how not quite commensurate in dignity
with its function. It is big enough,
however, bigger than it looks.
/ remember the strange men sitting
glun and important in their chairs just
behind the box and the group Of negroes
| pressing up and handing in their slips
/ of paper, some with difidence, some
with amusement, some with a pompous
| pretense of knowledge, but all with a
! certain nervousness born of their desire
| to perform without error their new and
| strange function. They took their Or
ders from one Of the strange men and
| one after another handed in their bal
lots, while group of negro women on
| one side watched curiously and group
| of disfranchised white men on the other
/ watched surlily the unwonted spectacle.
! Il was an ominous beginning. do not
remember what the vote was for.
| do not know that I ever knew, and
| doubt if the voters did either. / re-
member Archie Tyler, a sort of preacher
and leader, years after Gen. Grants
presidency, testifying that he voted
"for ole Mr.. Grant" 1 only remem-
bered that somehow felt that it was a
hostile act and was angry with the two
men who were behind the box, though
not as / recollect with the negroes
themselves, a number of whom had be-
longed to us.
The first representative from my
county that remember was Burwell
Toler, an old negro, who was elected to
the state convention over Mr.. William
f. Wickham, the wealthiest man in the
county, and the father of Gen. Wick
ham. The Wickhams had been wings
and union men before the war, as had
my own people, voting against secession
until the state went out, when all OF
proper age had promptly entered the
army, where they stayed until APP
pomattox. And after the war they &C
copied the situation and deemed it best
for the south to unite with the re.
publicans and try to guide their policy
in the south. They thus voted with
the republicans at first; though eventu-
ally, in face of reconstruction, they fell
into line with the great body of the
southern people. Thus 1t was that on
the occasion of the first election it was
hoped that Mr.. Wlckham might be
elected, and for the first time in his life
he consented to run for Office. He was
defeated, however, and never again
offered, contenting himself with voting
and having his vote neutralized by
that of his old driver Oliver, Burwell
roler's brother.
This is related because it leads up to
the fact that Gen. Wickhan, who had
been through all the period of recon
struction the best friend that the negro
had in Virginia, and who incurred by