The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-06-28
LAST OF
HIS RACI.
u. H. White Only Negr,
il Congress.
CHANGE IN SITUATION
Some Afro-Americans Who Have
Won Prominence in National
Politics.

| WASHINGTON, June 10.-He is the last
OF his race. An epoch is closed. Seated
IN remote corner of the chamber of the
| House of Representatives, near Brumi
! as painting of the opening of negotia-
uohs at the siege of Yorktown, he list
ems to an uproar on the floor apnarentIv
| lost in reflection. A light mulatto of
| sturdy physique, he has cIose-cropped
kinky hair and two inches of whiskers
militaire. The eyes are bright, the mus
tache neatly trimmed and the hair part-
| ed In the middle. There is a slight trace
OF the Ethiop in his features. but the
face is pleasing and intellectual. Dressed
with excellent taste. he is evidently a
man OF education and refinement. Speak
ing IN correct terms in language spark
ing with American idioms he lacks af
liability, although polite in manner and
dlrect In conversation. Indeed he has
lew II any Congress. .onal associates His
wife, lady of beauty and refinement
frequently visits the capitol and returns
home with him after the tolls of the day.
This statesman is the Hon. George Hem
ry White, of Tarboro, n. c., the last of
the negro Congressman
The reconstruction tide has at last
passed the flood and is beginning to ebb
The palmy days of the new era are over
and the relapse is here. Mere ephemera
Were the carpetbagger and scalllwagger
They were political insects with lives
measured by days. But the negro sur
vived nearly third of a century. He was
part of the soil of the South, cultivat-
ed by questionable methods, but never
1ertlized. Like the old Virginia tobacco
fields, the soil seems to have run out
ana the land, no longer productive, is
about to be abandoned. Mr.. White is as
able and intelligent a representative of
his race as has ever appeared in Wash
ington. He comports himself with great
dignity in the House Addressing his
colleagues with unusual ability, when the
opportunity serves. he seasons his elo-
qrence with ridicule and sarcasm, reliev-
ing 1t with trite sayings and metaphors
once in the present session he reached
the plateau of real oratory. In burning
words he arraigned Judge Lynch for
high crimes and misdemeanors in the
South. and sought his impeachment at
the bar of public opinion. There was no
pleading for favor, but a demand for in
dividual rights. He did not beg for fair
play; he exacted it. The speech dissect-
ed acknowledged facts with an unspar-
ln5 scalpel, laid bare me fostering wound
and demanded the prompt appIica ton of
a remedy. Possibly it was mUre aggress-
i've than suggestive, more rr.tating than
convincing, but no one could gainsay it's
logic. The members listened with Intense
interest, and the speech aroused strong
editorial comment. Among those who
congratulated the orator was one or
two Democrats from south of Mason AMI
Dixon's line. 1t was the best work done
by White during his three years in Con-
gress Mayhap it was the last protest
in Congress.
SITUATION HAS CHANGED.
For the situation has changed. The
woods have been cut away and .he
stream has run dry. The denud:ng of the
forest began four years ago when Mis-
sissippi adopted a State constitution that
practically disfranchsed the negro
Louisiana followed suit, and North Car
olina and Virginia are already tread.ng
in the same path. The nfteenIn amend
ment is virtually being wiped out Dry
are the stones IN the bed of the brook
There may be water under them, but
whether it will ever again oCZe to the
surface time alone can determ-
What regime it was in lis heyday,
The amnest-ed whites seem 10 have re-
sarded it as a sort of political night
mare. No more incongruous political ell
ements We're upheaved n the French
FeNoiutIOn II WAS stratum CT states
manship unforeshadowed and utterly un-
known. 1t was like fungi, The product of
a night, and only a few experts could
separate the mushroom from the toad
stool. 1t first knocked at the door of the
House of Representatives in the Fortieth
Congress in the person of a Wesl Indian
negro 30 years Old. His name vas j.
Willis Menard, and he had received GER
ficate of election from Governor II. G.
Warmoth, of Louisiana. His seat was
contested by Caleb s. Hunt. The Com
mittee on Elections reported against .ie-
rard, and Hunt was seated by he House.
Menard argued his case ably ard vigor-
ously and was the first negro who was
ever heard in Congress.
he next negro who appeared was HI
ram Il. Revels. He was e4ectcd TO the
United States Senate from Mississippi.
and took his seat in February, 1910, his
term expiring March 4. 1871. Revefs was
tall and commanding and of very agree
atle and engaging manners. 1t was
said that he mad a white wife. He was
a graduate of a Quaker sem nary in In
diana. At the expiration CT lis ERIN he
became a Methodist min ster and made
his theological career remuaerative by
lecturing in Boston and other cultured
precincts.
While Revels was a United States SEN
ator several negroes were admitted to
he House of Representa- .ves. : his was
in the Forty-hrst Congres s The most
ercminent was Joseph II. Rainey born a
slave in Georgetown, s c.. in 1882 Raj
ney was barber in Charleston when the
war broke out. He fed To the West In
dies in 1862, where he remained until the
eltse Of the war. on returning to