The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1904-06-01
lgaIHsT NEGRO RICE.
Seriousness af El-Gsngressn'an
alurraY's Crime.
CONVICTION OF Successful South
Carolina Negro Of Forgery
Bound 10 be! Used as Argument
against Education for
Negroes.

Is
Negroes.
MIS- Career and the Temptation Which
ResnEsed ID His DowaFall.
Washington. May Another
crime against the negro race" is the
commens heard on every side among
she friends of the black man on hear
sug that George Washingon Murray,
the coEored ex-memher OF Ceargess
from South Carolina, bad been con-:
yicted of forgery This is the way in
which all such things are viewed here
row. e Is recoGnized that tbe negro
scisizen is on srisi and that his whole
future mag depend upon the way he.
meets his responsih hilities when ne has
had the advantage OF an education, -
and opportunity las opened before:
him.
rrray,s education came a little
hard, put he got it, and the dihcnl-.
ties that compassed its acquisition.
we're expected 80 prove blessings in
disgnisa in developing his character
and making a man of him and an ex-
ample to his people. Their first effect,
however, seemed to be to increase
lis seif.importance. The biography
he furnished for the Congressional
Directors on his admission to the
House OF Representatives. tells quite
story 60 one Mho Eesds it between
the lines:
Georeg Washington Murray was born
Sep5em5er %. 1855, ofsiayes parents,
near Rembert, Sumter County, s. @.
Emancipation found him 8 lad OF
eleven summers. bereft Of both par
enss, thrown upon the rugged shores
sof early enanci patton, after a cruel
and dehamanizing war, had deprived
the population OF almost all the liner
sensibilities Of human sympathy and.
philanthropy.
= TiEhout q friend upon whom TO rely
for either. aid or advice, he entered
upon the fierce combat then IN pro-
gress IN an Impoverished section for
tfs INDISPENSABLE bread of. life.
Among the waits of his neigh hborhood,
sn 1866. he picked mp his alphabet and
acauired an imperfect and crude pro-.
ANNEXATION OF monosy yllables.. During
! the next five years he SO indGstTiously
applied himself in Efforts to improve
MS neagre stock Of knowledge that In
January, 1871, he entered while in ses-
sion for the irss time q day school.
but as teacher, not as scholar. He
taught until the fall OF 1874, when he
successfully passed a competitive ex-1
animation and obtained a scholarship
as subfreshman in the reconstructed
Universisy of South Carolina.
Having passed through his alma
mater to his junior year, the accession
20 mower of an administration uns
frigndIy TO the co-education CT the
races 1856 forced him without her
doors. He re-entered the public
schools Of his county SIS teacher, and
was successfully employed until Feb
\ ruary, 1896.
His description of his struggle for
nomination and election, in which be
was opposed by every body OF influence
and power in his own neighborhood9
according to his way OF thinking-is
equally Characteristic. H he had con-
tinued the narrative further. he might
have told how he obtained his certif-
cate OF election only by q trade with
the Popuiist element at his home, a
favor which be reeiprocated by max
ire speech Ia support Of the free
and unlimited coinage OF silver at the
time when all sae other Republicans
in Congress, except handful from
the West, we're helping President
Cleveland in his effort to repeal the
Sherman Ack Murray apparently
yss unable to understand why the
white Republicans did not warm up
TO him thereafter as he felt they ought
To. and why, when he appeared as
8 contestant for seat in later Con-
rress more Of the Mckinley wing OF
his party vas willing to take an active
hand in his fight.
However, Murray was no worse IN
his notion that politics and business
and morals are separate and unrelated
interests, than many white politician
is. He vas simply Initiative. After
he had got through iooIing with Office
seeking he went back to his State to
STAY. and resumed calling which.
thanss to his native cleverness, had
proved pretty profitable already and
seemed destined tc grow more SO:
Long ago he had made up his mind
that what the Southern negro most
needed was home of his own, with
sense of independence, and that the
man who could furnish such homes
might make a lot of money in the
process. So he took his own earnings
aud what other capital he could scrape
together and command and bought by
degrees between 1000 and 5000 acres
Of agricultural land when the Old
paanrers who owned it were in need
Of cash and willing to sell cheap.
This area he cut up into small! hold
iugs and planted negro colonies on
them. In the choice of colonists ne
showed a good deal Of Intelligence
and q thrifty spirit, taking only those
Sof fair repute aud Industrious haolt'
and trying wherever practicable, TO
keep relatives together. The little
farms were OF a size which could oe
cared for Dy man and his wife and
children, if they all turned in AND
worked hard. From the head CT the
eo-,oc ~ 5SSOry