Chapter XXIII: Representative Colored Men (2)

Among the representative young men of color in the United States--and now, happily in the process of time, their name is legion--Richard Theodore Greener has undisputed standing. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1844, but spent most of his life in Massachusetts. His father and grandfather were men of unusual intelligence, social energy, and public spirit. Richard T. early manifested an eagerness to learn and a capacity to retain and utilize. He enjoyed better surroundings in childhood than the average Colored child a generation ago; and always accustomed to hear the English correctly spoken, he had in himself all the required conditions to acquire a thorough education. Having obtained a start in the common schools, he turned to Oberlin College, Lorain County, Ohio,--at that time an institution toward which the Colored people of the country were very partial, and whose anti-slavery professors they loved with wonderful tenderness. For some of these professors, in the _Oberlin-Wellington Rescue Case_, had preferred imprisonment in preference to obedience to the unholy fugitive-slave law. The years of 1862-3 were spent at Oberlin, and Mr. Greener showed himself an excellent student. His ambition was to excel in every thing. Not exactly satisfied with the course of studies at Oberlin, he went to Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. This institution was a feeder for Harvard, and using uniform text-books he was placed in line and harmony with the course of studies to be pursued at Cambridge. He entered Harvard College in the autumn of 1865, and graduated with high honors in 1870.[127] He was the first of his race to enter this famous university, and while there did himself credit, and honored the race from which he sprang. All his performances were creditable. He won a second prize for reading aloud in his freshman year; in his sophomore year he won the first prize for the Boylston Declamation, notwithstanding members of the junior and senior classes contested. During his junior year he did not contest, preferring to tutor two of the competitors who were successful. In his senior year he won the two highest prizes, viz: the First Bowdoin for a Dissertation on "The Tenures of Land in Ireland," and the "Boylston Prize for Oratory."

The entrance, achievements, and graduation of Mr. Greener received the thoughtful and grateful attention of the press of Europe and America; while what he did was a stimulating example to the young men of his race in the United States.

At the time of his graduation there was a great demand for and a wide-spread need of educated Colored men as teachers. The Institute for Colored Youth, in Philadelphia, had been but recently deprived of its principal, Prof. E. D. Bassett, who had been sent as Resident Minister and Consul-General to the Republic of Hayti. Mr. Greener was called to take the chair vacated by Mr. Bassett. He was principal of this institution from Sept., 1870, to Dec., 1872. From Philadelphia he was called to fill a similar position in Sumner High School, at Washington, D. C. He did not remain long in Washington. His fame as an educator had grown until he was celebrated as a teacher throughout the country. He was offered and accepted the Chair of Metaphysics and Logic in the University of South Carolina, situate at Columbia. He remained here until 1877, when the Hampton Government found no virtue in a Negro as a teacher in an institution of the fame and standing of this university. In 1877 he was made Dean of the Law Department of Howard University, Washington, D. C., and held the position until 1880. He graduated from the Law School of the University of South Carolina, and has practised in Washington since his residence there. In addition to his work as teacher, lawyer, and orator, Prof. Greener was associate editor of the _New National Era_ at Washington, D. C., and his editorial _Young Men to the Front_, gave him a reputation as a progressive and aggressive leader which he has sustained ever since with marked ability.

As a political speaker he began while in college, in 1868, and has continued down to the present time. He is a pleasant speaker, and acceptable and efficient in a campaign. As an orator and writer he excels. His early style was burdened, like that of the late Charles Sumner, with a too-abundant classical illustration and quotation; but during the last five years his illustrations are drawn largely from the English classics and history. His ablest effort at oratory was his oration on _Charles Sumner, the Idealist, Statesman, and Scholar_. It was by all odds the finest effort of its kind delivered in this country. It was eminently fitting that a representative of the race toward whose elevation Mr. Sumner contributed his splendid talents, and a graduate from the same College that honored Sumner, and from the State that gave him birth and opportunity, should give the true analysis of his noble life and spotless character.

In the "National Quarterly Review" for July, 1880, Prof. Greener replied to an article from the pen of Mr. James Parton on _Antipathy to the Negro_, published in the "North American Review." Prof. Greener's theme was _The Intellectual Position of the Negro_. The following paragraphs give a fair idea of the style of Mr. Greener:

"The writer himself appears not to feel such an antipathy to us
that it must need find expression; for his liberality is well
known to those who have read his writings for the past fifteen
years. Nor is there any apparent ground for its appearance
because of any new or startling exhibitions of _antipathia_
against us noticeable at the present time. No argument was needed
to prove that there has been an unreasonable and unreasoning
prejudice against negroes as a class, a long-existing antipathy,
seemingly, ineradicable, sometimes dying out it would appear, and
then bursting forth afresh from no apparent cause. If Mr. Parton
means to assert that such prejudice is ineradicable, or is
increasing, or is even rapidly passing away, then is his venture
insufficient, because it fails to support either of these views.
It does not even attempt to show that the supposed antipathy is
general, for the author expressly, and, we think, very properly,
relegates its exercise to those whom he calls the most
ignorant--the 'meanest' of mankind.

"If his intention was to attack a senseless antipathy, hold it up
to ridicule, show its absurdity, analyze its constituent parts,
and suggest some easy and safe way for Americans to rid
themselves of unchristian and un-American prejudices, then has he
again conspicuously failed to carry out such purpose. He asserts
the existence of antipathies, but only by inference does he
discourage their maintenance, although on other topics he is
rather outspoken whenever he cares to express his own
convictions.

"On this question Mr. Parton is, to say the least, vacillating,
because he fails to exhibit any platform upon which we may combat
those who support early prejudices and justify their continuance
from the mere fact of their existence. We never expect Mr.
Gayarré and Mr. Henry Watterson to look calmly and
dispassionately at these questions from the negro's point of
view. The one gives us the old argument of De Bow's _Review_, and
the other deals out the _ex parte_ views of the present leaders
of the South. The one line of argument has been answered over and
over again by the old anti-slavery leaders; the pungent
generalizations of the latter, the present generation of negroes
can answer whenever the opportunity is afforded them.

"But Mr. Parton was born in a cooler and calmer atmosphere, where
men are accustomed to give a reason for the faith that is in
them, and hence it is necessary, in opening any discussion such
as he had provoked, that he should assign some ground of
opposition or support--Christian, Pagan, utilitarian,
constitutional, optimist, or pessimist.

"The very apparent friendliness of his intentions makes even a
legitimate conclusion from him seem mere conjecture, likely to be
successfully controverted by any subtle thinker and opponent. No
definite conclusion is, indeed, reached with regard to the first
query (Jefferson's fourteenth) with which Mr. Parton opens his
article: Whether the white and black races can live together on
this continent as equals. He lets us see at the close,
incidentally only, what his opinion is, and it inclines to the
negative. But throughout the article he is in the anomalous and
dubious position of one who opens a discussion which he cannot
end, and the logical result of whose own opinion he dares not
boldly state. The illustrations of the early opinions of Madison
and Jefferson only show how permanent a factor the negro is in
American history and polity, and how utterly futile are all
attempts at his expatriation. Following Mr. Parton's advice, the
negro has always prudently abstained from putting 'himself
against inexorable facts.' He is careful, however, to make sure
of two things,--that the alleged facts are verities and that they
are inexorable. Prejudice we acknowledge as a fact; but we know
that it is neither an ineradicable nor an inexorable one. We find
fault with Mr. Parton because he starts a trail on antipathy,
evidently purposeless, and fails to track it down either
systematically or persistently, but branches off, _desipere in
loco_, to talk loosely of 'physical antipathy,' meaning what we
usually term natural antipathy; and at last, emerging from the
'brush,' where he has been hopelessly beating about from Pliny to
Mrs. Kemble, he gains a partial 'open' once more by asserting a
truism--that it is the 'ignorance of a despised class' (the lack
of knowledge we have of them) which nourishes these 'insensate
antipathies.' Here we are at one with Mr. Parton. Those who know
us most intimately, who have associated with us in the nursery,
at school, in college, in trade, in the tenderer and confidential
relations of life, in health, in sickness, and in death, as
trusted guides, as brave soldiers, as magnanimous enemies, as
educated and respected men and women, give up all senseless
antipathies, and feel ashamed to Confess they ever cherished any
prejudice against a race whose record is as unsullied as that of
any in the land."

The following passages from a most brilliant speech at the Dinner of the Harvard Club of New York, exhibit a pure, perspicuous, and charming style:

"What Sir John Coleridge in his 'Life of Keble' says of the
traditions and influences of Oxford, each son of Harvard must
feel is true also of Cambridge. The traditions, the patriotic
record, and the scholarly attainments of her alumni are the pride
of the College. Her contribution to letters, to statesmanship,
and to active business life, will keep her memory perennially
green. Not one of the humblest of her children, who has felt the
touch of her pure spirit, or enjoyed the benefits of her culture,
can fail to remember what she expects of her sons wherever they
may be: to stand fast for good government, to maintain the
right, to uphold honesty and character, to be, if nothing else,
good citizens, and to perform, to the extent of their ability,
every duty assumed or imposed upon them,--democratic in their
aristocracy, catholic in their liberality, impartial in judgment,
and uncompromising in their convictions of duty. [Cheers and
applause.]

"Harvard's impartiality was not demonstrated solely by my
admission to the College. In 1770, when Crispus Attucks died a
patriot martyr on State Street, she answered the rising spirit of
independence and liberty by abolishing all distinctions founded
upon color, blood, and rank. Since that day, there has been but
one test for all. Ability, character, and merit,--these are the
sole passports to her favor. [Applause.]

"When, in my adopted State, I stood on the battered ramparts of
Wagner, and recalled the fair-haired son of Harvard who died
there with his brave black troops of Massachusetts,--

"'him who, deadly hurt, agen
Flashed on afore the charge's thunder,
Tippin' with fire the bolt of men,
Thet rived the Rebel line asunder,'--

I thanked God, with patriotic pleasure, that the first contingent
of negro troops from the North should have been led to death and
fame by an alumnus of Harvard; and I remembered, with additional
pride of race and college, that the first regiment of black
troops raised on South Carolina soil were taught to drill, to
fight, to plough, and to read by a brave, eloquent, and scholarly
descendant of the Puritans and of Harvard, Thomas Wentworth
Higginson. [Great applause and cheers.]

"Is it strange, then, brothers, that I there resolved for myself
to maintain the standard of the College, so far as I was able, in
public and in private life? I am honored by the invitation to be
present here to-night. Around me I see faces I have not looked
upon for a decade. Many are the intimacies of the College, the
society, the buskin, and the oar which they bring up, from
classmates and college friends. I miss, as all Harvard men must
miss to-night, the venerable and kindly figure of Andrew Preston
Peabody, the student's friend, the consoler of the plucked, the
encourager of the strong, Mæcenas's benign almoner, the
felicitous exponent of Harvard's Congregational Unitarianism. I
miss, too, another of high scholarship, of rare poetic taste, of
broad liberality--my personal friend, Elbridge Jefferson Cutler,
loved alike by students and his fellow-members of the Faculty for
his conscientious performance of duty and his genial nature.

"Mr. President and brothers, my time is up. I give you 'Fair
Harvard,' the exemplar, the prototype of that ideal America, of
which the greatest American poet has written,--

"'Thou, taught by Fate to know Jehovah's plan,
Thet man's devices can't unmake a man,
An' whose free latch-string never was drawed in
Against the poorest child of Adam's kin."

"[Great applause.]"

Prof. Greener rendered legal services in the case of Cadet Whittaker at West Point, and in the trial at New York City, where, as associate counsel with ex-Gov. Chamberlain,--an able lawyer and a magnificent orator,--he developed ability and industry as an attorney, and earned the gratitude of his race.

Prof. Greener entered Harvard as a member of the Baptist Church; but the transcendentalism and rationalism of the place quite swept him from his spiritual moorings. In a recent address before a literary society in Washington, D. C., he is represented to have maintained that Mohammedanism was better for the indigenous races of Africa than Christianity. Dr. John William Draper made a similar mistake in his "_Conflict between Religion and Science!_" The learned doctor should have written "Conflict between the Church and Science." Religion is not and never was at war with science. Prof. Greener should have written, "Mohammedanism better for the Africans than Snake Worship." This brilliant young man cannot afford to attempt to exalt Mohammedanism above the cross of our dear Redeemer, and expect to have leadership in the Negro race in America. Nor can he support the detestable ideas and execrable philosophy of Senator John P. Jones, which seek to shut out the Chinaman from free America. The Negro must stand by the weak in a fight like this, remembering the pit from which he was dug. But Prof. Greener is young as well as talented; and seeing his mistake, will place himself in harmony with not only the rights of his race, but those of humanity everywhere.

Blanche K. Bruce was born a slave on a plantation in Prince Edward County, Virginia, March 1, 1841, and in the very month and week of the anniversary of his birth he was sworn in as United States Senator from Mississippi. Reared a slave there was nothing in his early life of an unusual nature. He secured his freedom at the end of the war, and immediately sought the opportunities and privileges that would, if properly used, fit him for his new life as a man and a citizen. He went to Oberlin College where, in the Preparatory Department, he applied himself to his studies, attached himself to his classmates by charming personal manners, and gentlemanly deportment. He realized that there were many splendid opportunities awaiting young men of color at the South; and that profitable positions were going begging.

Mr. Bruce made his appearance in Mississippi at an opportune moment. The State was just undergoing a process of reconstruction. He appeared at the capital, Jackson, with seventy-five cents in his pocket; was a stranger to every person in the city. He mingled in the great throng, joined in the discussions that took place by little knots of politicians, made every man his friend to whom he talked, and when the State Senate was organized secured the position of Sergeant-at-arms. He attracted the attention of Gov. Alcorn, who appointed him a member of his staff with the rank of colonel. Col. Bruce was not merely Sergeant-at-arms of the Senate, but was a power behind that body. His intelligence, his knowledge of the character of the legislation needed for the people of Mississippi, and the excellent impression he made upon the members, gave him great power in suggesting and influencing legislation.

The sheriffs of Mississippi were not elected in those days; and the Governor had to look a good ways to find the proper men for such positions. His faith in Col. Bruce as a man and an officer led him to select him to be sheriff of Bolivar County. Col. Bruce discharged the delicate duties of his office with eminent ability, and attained a popularity very remarkable under the circumstances.

During this time, while other politicians were dropping their money at the gaming-table and in the wine cup, Col. Bruce was saving his funds, and after purchasing a splendid farm at Floraville, on the Mississippi River, he made cautious and profitable investments in property and bonds. His executive ability was marvellous, and his successful management of his own business and that of the people of the county made him friends among all classes and in both political parties. He was appointed tax-collector for his county, a position that was calculated to tax the most accomplished financier and business man in the State. But Col. Bruce took to the position rare abilities, and managed his office with such matchless skill, that when the term of Henry R. Pease expired, he was chosen United States Senator from Mississippi on the third of February, 1875, for the constitutional term of six years. He took his seat on the 4th of March, 1875.

He did nothing in the line of oratory while in the Senate. That was not his forte. He was an excellent worker, a faithful committee-man, and finally was chairman of the Committee on the Freedman's Savings Bank, etc. Mr. Bruce was chairman of the Committee on Mississippi Levees, where he performed good work. He presided over the Senate with dignity several times. To the charge that he was a "silent Senator," it may be observed that it was infinitely better that he remained silent, than in breaking the silence to exhibit a mental feebleness in attempting to handle problems to which most of the Senators had given years of patient study. His conduct was admirable; his discretion wise; his service faithful, and his influence upon the honorable Senate and the country at large beneficial to himself and helpful to his race.

In the convention of the Republican party at Chicago, in 1880, he was a candidate for Vice-President. In the spring of 1881, after the close of his senatorial career the President nominated him to be Register of the United States Treasury, and the nomination was confirmed without reference, after a complimentary speech from his associate, Senator L. Q. C. Lamar. He has appeared as a political speaker on several occasions. As nature did not intend him for this work, his efforts appear to be the products of hard labor, but nevertheless excellent; his estimable and scholarly wife (_née_ Miss Wilson, of Cleveland, Ohio) has been a great blessing to him;--a good wife and a helpful companion. From a penniless slave he has risen to the position of writing his name upon the currency of the country. Register Bruce is a genial gentleman, a fast friend, and an able officer.

John Mercer Langston was born a slave in Virginia; is a graduate of Oberlin College and Theological Institution, and as a lawyer, college president, foreign minister, and politician, has exerted a wide influence for the good of his race. As Secretary of the Board of Health for the District of Columbia, and as President of the Howard University, he displayed remarkable executive ability and sound business judgment. He is one of the bravest of the brave in public matters, and his influence upon young Colored men has been wide-spread and admirable. He is now serving as Resident Minister and Consul-General to Hayti; and ranks among the best diplomats of our Government.

In Massachusetts, Charles L. Mitchell, George L. Ruffin, John J. Smith, J. B. Smith, and Wm. J. Walker have been members of the Legislature. In Illinois, a Colored man has held a position in the Board of Commissioners for Cook County--Chicago; and one has been sent to the Legislature. In Ohio, two Colored men have been members of the Legislature, one from Cincinnati and the other from Cleveland. Gov. Charles Foster was the first Executive in any of the Northern States to appoint a Colored man to a responsible position; and in this, as in nearly every other thing, Ohio has taken the lead. The present member (John P. Green) of the Legislature of Ohio representing Cuyahoga County, is a young man of excellent abilities both as a lawyer and as an orator. John P. Green was born at New Berne, North Carolina, April 2, 1845, of free parents. His father died in 1850, and his widow was left to small resources in raising her family. But being an excellent seamstress she did very well for her five-year-old son, while she had an infant in her arms.

In 1857 Mrs. Green moved to Ohio and located at Cleveland. Her son John was now able and willing to assist his mother some; and so as an errand-boy he hired himself out for $4 per month. He obtained about a year and one half of instruction in the common schools, and did well. In 1862 he became a waiter in a hotel, and spent every leisure moment in study. He succeeded in learning something of Latin and Algebra, without a teacher.

Mr. Green had acquired an excellent style of composition, and to secure funds with which to complete his education, he wrote and published a pamphlet containing _Essays on Miscellaneous Subjects_, by a self-educated Colored youth. He sold about 1,500 copies in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, and then entered the Cleveland Central High School. He completed a four years' classical course in two years, two terms, and two months. He graduated at the head of a class of twenty-three. He entered the law office of Judge Jesse P. Bishop, and in 1870 graduated from the Cleveland Law School. He turned his face Southward, and having settled in South Carolina, began the practice of law, which was attended with great success. But the climate was not agreeable to his health, and in 1872 he returned to the scenes of his early toils and struggles. He became a practising attorney in Cleveland, and in the spring of 1873 was elected a justice of the peace for Cuyahoga County by a majority of 3,000 votes. He served three terms as a justice, and in eight years of service as such decided more than 12,000 cases. As a justice he has had no equal for many years. In 1877 he was nominated for the Legislature, but was defeated by sixty-two votes. In 1881 he was again before the people for the Legislature, and was elected by a handsome majority.

Mr. Green is rather a remarkable young man; and with good health and a fair field he is bound to make a success. He will bear comparison with any of his associates in the Legislature; and, as a clear, impressive speaker, has few equals in that body.

There are yet at least one hundred representative men of color worthy of the places they hold in the respect and confidence of their race and the country. Their number is rapidly increasing; and ere many years there will be no lack of representative Colored men.[128]

Colored women had fewer privileges of education before the war, and indeed since the war, than the men of their race, yet, nevertheless, many of these women have shown themselves capable and useful.

FRANCES ELLEN HARPER

was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1825. She was not permitted to enjoy the blessings of early educational training, but in after-years proved herself to be a woman of most remarkable intellectual powers. She applied herself to study, most assiduously; and when she had reached woman's estate was well educated.

She developed early a fondness for poetry, which she has since cultivated; and some of her efforts are not without merit. She excels as an essayist and lecturer. She has been heard upon many of the leading lecture platforms of the country; and her efforts to elevate her sisters have been crowned with most signal success.

MARY ANN SHADD CAREY,

of Delaware, but more recently of Washington, D. C., as a lecturer, writer, and school teacher, has done and is doing a great deal for the educational and social advancement of the Colored people.

FANNY M. JACKSON--

at present Mrs. Fanny M. Jackson Coppin--was born in the District of Columbia, in 1837. Though left an orphan when quite a child, Mrs. Sarah Clark, her aunt, took charge of her, and gave her a first-class education. She prosecuted the gentlemen's course in Oberlin College, and graduated with high honors.

Deeply impressed with the need of educated teachers for the schools of her race, she accepted a position at once in the Institute for Colored Youth, at Philadelphia, Pa. And here for many years she has taught with eminent success, and exerted a pure and womanly influence upon all the students that have come into her classes.

Without doubt she is the most thoroughly competent and successful of the Colored women teachers of her time. And her example of race pride, industry, enthusiasm, and nobility of character will remain the inheritance and inspiration of the pupils of the school she helped make the pride of the Colored people of Pennsylvania.

LOUISE DE MORTIE,

of Norfolk, Virginia, was born of free parents in that place, in 1833, but being denied the privileges of education, turned her face toward Massachusetts.

In 1853 she took up her residence in Boston. She immediately began to avail herself of all the opportunities of education. A most beautiful girl, possessed of a sweet disposition and a remarkable memory, she won a host of friends, and took high standing as a pupil.

In 1862 she began a most remarkable career as a public reader. An elocutionist by nature, she added the refinement of the art; and with her handsome presence, engaging manners, and richly-toned voice, she took high rank in her profession. Just as she was attracting public attention by her genius, she learned of the destitution that was wasting the Colored orphans of New Orleans. Thither she hastened in the spirit of Christian love; and there she labored with an intelligence and zeal which made her a heroine among her people. In 1867 she raised sufficient funds to build an asylum for the Colored orphans of New Orleans. But just then the yellow fever overtook her in her work of mercy, and she fell a victim to its deadly touch on the 10th of October, 1867, saying so touchingly, "I belong to God, our Father," as she expired.

Although cut off in the morning of a useful life, she is of blessed memory among those for whose improvement and elevation she gave the strength of a brilliant mind and the warmth of a genuine Christian heart.

MISS CHARLOTTE L. FORTUNE--

now the wife of the young and gifted clergyman, Rev. Frank J. Grimke,--is a native of Pennsylvania. She comes of one of the best Colored families of the State. She went to Salem, Massachusetts, in 1854, where she began a course of studies in the "Higginson High School." She proved to be a student of more than usual application, and although a member of a class of white youths, Miss Fortune was awarded the honor of writing the Parting Hymn for the class. It was sung at the last examination, and was warmly praised by all who heard it.

Miss Fortune became a contributor to the columns of the "Anti-Slavery Standard" and "Atlantic Monthly." She wrote both prose and poetry, and did admirably in each.

EDMONIA LEWIS,

the Negro sculptress, is in herself a great prophecy of the possibilities of her sisters in America. Of lowly birth, left an orphan when quite young, unable to obtain a liberal education, she nevertheless determined to be somebody and do something.

Some years ago, while yet in humble circumstances, she visited Boston. Upon seeing a statue of Benjamin Franklin she stood transfixed before it. It stirred the latent genius within the untutored child, and produced an emotion she had never felt before. "I, too, can make a stone man," she said. Almost instinctively, she turned to that great Apostle of Human Liberty, Wm. Lloyd Garrison, and asked his advice. The kind-hearted agitator gave her a note to Mr. Brackett, the Boston sculptor. He received her kindly, heard her express the desire and ambition of her heart, and then giving her a model of a human foot and some clay, said: "Go home and make that. If there is any thing in you it will come out." She tried, but her teacher broke up her work and told her to try again. And so she did, and triumphed.

Since then, this ambitious Negro girl has won a position as an artist, a studio in Rome, and a place in the admiration of the lovers of art on two continents. She has produced many meritorious works of art, the most noteworthy being _Hagar in the Wilderness_; a group of the _Madonna with the Infant Christ and_ _two adoring Angels_; _Forever Free_; _Hiawatha's Wooing_; a bust of _Longfellow, the Poet_; a bust of _John Brown_; and a medallion portrait of _Wendell Phillips_. The _Madonna_ was purchased by the Marquis of Bute, Disraeli's Lothair.

She has been well received in Rome, and her studio has become an object of interest to travellers from all countries.

Of late many intelligent young Colored women have risen to take their places in society, and as wives and mothers are doing much to elevate the tone of the race and its homes. Great care must be given to the education of the Colored women of America; for virtuous, intelligent, educated, cultured, and pious wives and mothers are the hope of the Negro race. Without them educated Colored men and the miraculous results of emancipation will go for nothing.

FOOTNOTES:

[123] Hiram R. Revels was the successor of Mr. Jefferson Davis. He was a Methodist preacher from Mississippi. It was our privilege to be present in the Senate when he was sworn in and took his seat.

[124] This idea had been put forth in a speech by Alexander H. Stephens just after he had been chosen Vice-president of the Confederate States.

[125] My Bondage and My Freedom, p. 396.

[126] While this history is passing through the press, the sad intelligence comes of the death, after a painful illness, of his beloved wife. All through her life she was justly proud of her husband and children; and she leaves a precious memory.

[127] Mr. Greener was turned back one year upon the ground of alleged imperfection in mathematics; but it was done in support of an old theory, long since exploded, that the Negro has no capacity for the solution of mathematical problems. We know this to be the case. But the charming nature and natural pluck of young Greener brought him out at last without a blemish in any of his studies.

[128] Biography is quite a different thing from history; and the Colored men who may imagine themselves neglected ought to remember that this is a _History of the Negro Race_. We have mentioned these men as representative of several classes.