The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-08-30
AN EDITOR AND ORATOR
STIRRING OF NELsON L.
CREWS BEFORE IRON LEAGUE.
CoIored Men Must stand Shoulder to
Shoulder in This Campaign-Re-
marks Of Chairman HernIy.

meeting In the new clubhouse of the Iron
League. on indian avenue. last night. Mr..
Crews is clerk of the City Court at Kansas
City. Mo-, and a leading colored Republican
of that city. Upon several occasions dur
ing the sessions of the Afro-American
Council at the Statehouse this week he has
made extemporaneous speeches which
stamped him an orator of no mean ability.
He attracted the attention of leading men,
bers of the Iron League. who at once set
about making arrangementsto have Mr..
Crews address the club in a straight po-
litical' speech. The meeting last night
might truthfully be classed as an over
flowing one, since the hall itself was
rowded to it's utmost capacity, and. be-
sides. every door and window about the
place was filed with interested. enthusiast
tic listeners. The presiding officer vas
VIM. E. Gibson. State Chairman Charles
s. Hernly and Frederick Z. Matson. Re-
publican candidate for a seat in the Indi-
ana Legislature. were present and seemed
70 enjoy Mr.. Crews's address quite as much
as did the audience. AT the conclusion of
the speech Mr.. Hernly declared that the
state committee would bring Mr.. Crews
back to Indianapolis ito warm things up a
little more" 1--WE will take him around
among all the wards here. and we want
you fellows to turn out and hear him and
tell all your friends to come said Mr..
Hernly.
Mr.. Crews declared he was not prepared
to make the kind of a speech that would,
perhaps. tickle the fancy of his hearers,
but as he became warmed up" there were
frequent cries of Good! You are giving it
to us straight! Go on!' The speaker sew
eral times announced that he must stop
and return to the session OF the counci In
the Statehouse, but his auditors were so
insistent that he remained about three
quarters of an hour and finally had to lit
orally tear himself away" not, however.
until he had been given a rising vote of
thanks by the club members and everybody
else present.
SOME THINGS THE ORATOR SAID.
Mr.. Crews said in part: 'It was the Re-
publican party that gave US a Charles
Sumner, a Thaddeus Stevens, a Lane and
hundreds of others whose names 1 cannot
recall at this time. Grand old Charles
Sumner, lying upon his death bed. called
his family around him. imbued with the
teachings of Almighty God. and said When
l am dead / want you to bury me out yon-
der in thel little graveyard where they bury
both black and white. and l want you to
inscribe upon my monument L lie here,
not in solitude. but TO defend in death the
| principles which 1 advocated in q long life
| the equality of man before his Creator.
1t was such splendid men as these that
paved the way for the organization of this
great political party that rose to the zenith
of its power when I'm 1860 ii elected the
Rail Splitter from the grand old common
wealth of Illinois to manage the destinies
of this great country. When, my friends,
we began to realize that the sun was be-
ginning TO rise above the horizon and the
glad era of freedom and liberty for which
| the fathers and mothers had been praying
| ICries of Yes. Yes1 for so many years was
= beginning to break. Don't you
| you old men-that previous to the organiZa-
ton of the Republican party in this country
the only thing we could hear, instead of
| gathering in a magnificent clubroom like
this, surrounded by our white friends,
without fear of molestation or harm, to
listen to negro speakers in a meeting pre-
sided over by negro officers-the only thing
we could hear was the baying of the
| bloodhound. the crack of the slave drivers
whip, the shrill voice of the auctioneer as
he was selling your mother and mine down
in the Everglades of Florida-never to meet
| again. / think of the families of this black
| race that were divided by the cruel curse
of slavery-how mothers and fathers and
wives, sons, daughters, parents and chill
dren were divided in those cruel days. never
to meet again in this life. Who knows,
| perhaps sitting here in this audience is
some relative of mine who was separated
by the cruel hand of slavery, whose MEM
DRY / know not of, but L am confident that
| God will bring us together in His own good
| time. My friends, L realize that next TO
| the love | have for the religion of the Lord
| and Savior Jesus Christ is the inherent
| love of that political organization that came
down in the mire and degradation OF slay-
| cry and lifted me up and put me on the
rock of manhood and liberty, and put the
ballot in my hand and told me to go and do
what I thought best. Tremendous ap-
| plause.1 1 say IL without fear of conse-
| duences that L consider the negro an in
| CRATE and unworthy of the association of
the true men and women of his race who,
for a mess of pottage, will sell out the in
| terests of his race to the Democratic party
that has always been opposed to the adj
vance and the material prosperity of the
black race of this country. IGreat ap-
| plausel Let MS stand together"
BRILLIANT MILITARy RECORD.
Mr.. Crews recounted the brilliant military
record of the negro. beginning with the
| revolutionary war. i'm which a slave
| changed defeat to victory at the battle of
| Lexington. and continued on down to the
| battle of San Juan Hill in 1895. He told
| of the negroes who went to the rescue
| of Custer and his men in 1876 and routed
| the 'red devils of the Western plains"
| The speaker also related the incident of
a poor slave telling General Stonewall
4 Jackson how TO build Notifications at New
| Orleans which would successfully resist
| the onslauehts of the British. He recount
ed the bright pages of the history OF the
! Mexican war belonging 10 the colored race.
He told the pathetic story OF the woundins
| of Josiah Tunnel, of Boston, on the little
| vessel in Cardenas harbor. made famous
by the death of Ensign Worth Bagley. The
speaker said that sometimes he is met
by Democrats with the statement that
| prosperity comes from God. not from Nc
Kinley. TO which he makes answer that
| the same God ruled above when Grover
| Cleveland vas President and men out Of
work banded themselves together in Cox
| ey's army and went to Washington to APP
peal TO the administration TO do something
for the destitute laboring men of the coun-
try. THE Republican party was founded
| upon the rock of manhood and right" said
| the speaker, land If you want to be on
| Gods side you have got to be with the
Republican party"
1888 er-. ny 1r0-r-rrrEn