Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1894-06-29

suited in victory for Des Moines by a
score of IS to g. Thus it was that some
three thousand whites and one thou
sand colored, enjoyed a days outing
long to be remembered.
THE WHIRLIGlG OF Time.
/ Wendell Phillips Remarks on the First
| Colored United States Senator. in Boston,
/ May, 1870.
| Twenty-Five years ago Senator Revels,
a colored man, took his seat as sena-
| tor of the United States from the state
of Mississippi, to fill place made
vacant by jefferson Davis, who with
drew to become the president of the
so-called Southern Confederacy. In
May, 1870, this magnificent represen-
tative of cruelty wronged race re-
stored to the full rights of citizenship
| by the fortunes of four years of bloody
war, delivered an address to an inn
| mense audience in the city Of Boston.
| At the conclusion of the address Wen
, dell Phillips was called out, and spoke
as follows:
J 'sYou remember when we were chill
dren and read the Ara bian Nights, that
after some gorgeous description of
| crests of light and scimetars of gold
and crowns of jewels, the caliph
clapped his hands and the dream all
burst We weresitting on cold ground.
/ felt, as sat behind Senator Revels,
like clapping my hands to see if the
scene would change, whether it was all
a fairy mistake, whether he would van
ish as the scene did at the caliphs. I
could not realize that thousands of men
had come into fremont Temple to see a
senator of the United States from that
race which has been SO long victimized.
secretary of state published mis- procla-
nation ratifying the fifteenth amend
j ment. The journal that contained it
came at night. We read it over; we
reioiced: we commented; we speculated;
and then we went to sleep. And with
the gray light of the morning sprung
to my feet again and searched for the
paper, to see whether there really was
a proclamation, whether it was not a
dream. 1t seems to me I should like to
| feel of the senator and see if he is flesh
i and blood. 1t seems hard to realize.
/ Why, / remember at the second anti
slavery meeting that / ever attended,
the attorney general of Massachu-
setts land still he breathes)
said the idea of taking the chains off
the black race, these Negroes, it was
like letting loose the hyenas. Mr..
/ Chairman and gentlemen of Boston, l
introduce to you hyena. This is the
man, the danger of unmuzzling whom
the attorney general so eloquently de-
lineated. Well then. later, Tombs told
us that if we ever dared to fire a gun
he would go over the roll call of his
slaves under the shadow of Bunker Hill
Well, this is the first one that answered
A Senator of the United States! How
absurd it was then. Too silly to be
even fanatical, too absurd to be even
treasonable Years ago Charles Sumner
said: L hope to see the day that shall
sit under this roof by the side of a
black senator from one of the United
States He has noJ reached his three
score yet, and his hope is fulfilled 1t
is not so short the interval. Burke
once said that the years of a single
life would cover ours. | can remember
the day when at the lecture delivered
in this very hall, a colored man was
not permitted among the audience, and
actually organized another lyceum in
another part of the city, in order that
that portion of Boston might not be de-
prived of the pleasure and instruction
of a lecture room. And all of you re
member how late it is when we owed
/ "a ~ II. T
Stone that a colored man, much to
everybody's amazement, was permitted
to speak in course of lectures. J
was hardly believed that it could
tolerated. and the next wear he w
further and introduced woman.
And now we crowd here to-nigl
listen, not to colored man but a
ed senator of the United States.
YOU go to the Rocky Mounts
see the lowest tier of the gra
makes up the very base of
shoot its peaks up to heave1
est. To-day the race that
IN the catalogue, shoots
into the great council q
Some of us doubted whe1
race would quite realiza
use economically this
franchise Men said
people, au over-gene
of forgiving mooC
avenues of these
intrigue, and the
despo.ism of the
and only make
while we specu
our glass dow
that they had
ernor into TIL