Chapter III: Front Matter (3)

And since like motives are apt to produce in the minds of men
like opinions and resolutions, may we not, Mr. Brown, venture to
predict, from this account, that the petitions to the Parliament
of England for abolishing the slave-trade, to say nothing of
other legislatures, and the debates upon them, will have a
similar conclusion? I am, Sir, your constant reader and humble
servant,

HISTORICUS.[5]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _The Works of Benjamin Franklin_, II, p. 517.

[2] _Ibid._, II, pp. 518-519.

[3] _The Works of Benjamin Franklin_, II, pp. 519-520.

[4] _The Works of Benjamin Franklin_, II, pp. 520-521.

[5] _Ibid._, II, p. 521.

THE PROCEEDINGS OF A MISSISSIPPI MIGRATION CONVENTION IN 1879[1]

The convention of the planters of the Mississippi Valley, which
has attracted the attention of the entire county, ever since the
call for its assembly was published, met in this city, this
morning. Delegates from all sections of the country are present
and more are expected. The original intention was to hold the
meeting of the convention in the Operahouse, but owing to the
large crowd present, and the warm weather, the place of meeting
was changed to the Concert Garden.

At half past twelve Judge Farrar called the meeting to order, and
requested Gen. W. R. Miles to act as temporary chairman. On
taking the chair the General delivered a short address and then
announced that the convention would proceed to permanent
organization.

A committee of twenty on permanent organization was appointed.

While the committee was out the convention was addressed by Judge
H. Simrall, of Mississippi, and Hon. Henry S. Foote, of
Louisiana.

The following gentlemen were elected permanent officers of the
convention:

President--Gen. W. R. Miles, of Yazoo county.

Vice-presidents--T. F. Cassell, of Tennessee; James Hill, of
Jackson, Mississippi; H. B. Robinson, of Arkansas; David Young,
of Louisiana.

Secretary--A. W. Crandall, Louisiana.

Assistant Secretaries--Jno. A. Galbreth, Jackson; J. D. Webster,
Washington county.

Sergeant at Arms--J. B. Pegram, Vicksburg.

Assistant sergeant at Arms--J. W. Crichloy, Vicksburg; George
Volker, Vicksburg; G. W. Walton, Vicksburg; Wesley Crayton,
Vicksburg.

After appointing a committee on credentials, the convention took
a recess until three o'clock.

SECOND DAY

The convention was called to order by the president at half past
nine.

Col. W. L. Nugent, chairman of the committee, presented the
following preamble and resolutions:

_Mr. President._ Your committee on resolutions beg leave
respectfully to report that they have inquired into the causes
which have given rise to the recent exodus of our colored
population, as far as possible within the limited time allowed,
and while these causes are difficult to ascertain, owing to the
exceptional cases of all kinds brought to their attention, they
believe the following to include those which may be considered
prominent:

1st. The low price of cotton and the partial failure of the crop
of the past year.

2d. The irrational system of planting adopted in some sections,
whereby labor was deprived of intelligence to direct it, and the
presence of economy to make it profitable.

3d. The vicious system of credit fostered by laws permitting
laborers and tenants to mortgage crops before they were grown or
even planted.

4th. The apprehension on the part of many colored people,
produced by insidious reports circulated among them, that their
civil and political rights are endangered, or are likely to be.

5th. The hurtful and false rumors, diligently disseminated, that
by emigrating to Kansas, the colored people would obtain lands,
mules and money from the government without cost to themselves,
and become independent forever.

It is a matter of astonishment to your committees that the
colored people could be induced to credit the idle stories
circulated of a promised land, where their wants would be
supplied, and their independence secured, without exertion on
their part. It was going to the extent of ignorance and credulity
to credit them; and yet evidences of an undoubted character was
furnished your committee as to this matter. It is one of the
factors in a movement the end of which we cannot now forecaste.
There are in the State of Mississippi alone five million five
hundred thousand acres of land belonging to the United States now
subject to homestead entries. Any thrifty colored man in the
South can pre-empt one hundred and sixty acres of this land at
the moderate cost of about eighteen dollars. Lands in Kansas
cannot be acquired for less. In no part of the civilized world
can unskilled labor secure a larger return, by honest toil, than
among us, but idleness accompanied by extravagance produces
suffering and want here as elsewhere.

Your committee believes that the legislation of our States should
be shaped so as to foster habits of industry among the colored
people, elevate the standard of social morals, and improve and
preserve our common school system.

Diverse views have been expressed by parties equally desirous of
reaching the same conclusion: To ascertain grievances and apply
as far as it can be done by us, the proper redress. If the single
purpose of all was to accomplish this result, without the
influences which our past experiences have engendered to expect
it, this might be done; but it can only be done with full
knowledge of all the facts. That errors have been committed by
the whites and blacks alike as each in turn have controlled the
government of the States here represented, may be safely
admitted. Disregarding the past, burying its dead with it,
standing upon the living present, and looking hopefully to the
future which is before us, your committee think their duty
accomplished when they have adopted and reported these
resolutions:

Resolved, That the interests of planters and laborers, landlords
and tenants are identical; and that they must prosper or suffer
together; and that it is the duty of the planters and landlords
of the States here represented to devise and adopt some contract
system with laborers and tenants by which both parties will
receive the full benefit of labor governed by intelligence and
economy.

Resolved, That this convention does affirm that the colored race
has been placed by the constitution of the United States and the
States here represented, of the laws thereof, on a plane of
absolute legal equality with the white race; and does declare
that the colored race shall be accorded the practical enjoyment
of all rights, civil and political, guaranteed by the said
constitution and laws.

Resolved, That, to this end, the members of this convention
pledge themselves to use whatever of power and influence they
possess, to protect the colored race against all dangers in
respect to the fair expression of their wills at the polls, which
they may apprehend may result from fraud, intimidation or "bull
dozing," on the part of the whites. And as there can be no
liberty of action without freedom of thought, they demand that
all elections shall be fair and free and that no repressive
measure shall be employed by the colored people to deprive their
own race of any part of the fullest freedom in the exercise of
the highest right of citizenship.

Resolved, That the unrestricted credit system pervading the
States here represented, based upon liens and mortgages on stock
and crops to be grown in the future, followed by a failure of
that crop, has provoked distrust, created unrest, and disturbed
their entire laboring population. All laws authorizing liens on
crops for advances constituted on articles other than those of
prime necessity at moderate profits, where such advances are made
by landlords, planters or merchants, should be discontinued and
repealed.

Resolved, That this convention call upon the colored people here
represented to contradict the false reports circulated among and
impressed upon the more ignorant and credulous; to instruct them
that no lands nor mules nor money await them in Kansas or
elsewhere without labor or price and to report to the civil
authorities all persons engaging in disseminating any such
reports.

Resolved, That it is the constitutional right of the colored
people to migrate where they please, and to whatever State they
may select for their residence; but this convention urges them to
proceed on their movement towards migration as reasonable human
beings, providing in advance, by economy and effective labor, the
means for transportation and settlement, and sustain their
reputation for honesty and fair dealing, by preserving intact
until completion the contracts for labor and leasing, which they
have made. If, when they have done this, they still desire to
leave, all obstacles to their departure be removed; all
practicable assistance will be afforded to them, and their places
will be supplied with other and contented labor.

Your committee believe that if the views employed in the
foregoing resolutions are practically carried out by the people
of both races, in good faith, the disquiet of our people will
subside. We appeal to the people of both races, in the States
here represented, to aid us in carrying these resolutions into
effect, and to report to the authorities all violations of the
laws and all interference with private rights.

W. L. NUGENT,
_Chairman_.

Gov. Foote moved to amend by substituting other resolutions, and
addressed the convention in support of his motion.

Speeches were made in favor of the original resolutions by Judge
Simrall, Hon. James Hill, Capt. W. B. Pittman, Mr. Robinson, of
Arkansas, and Col. Nugent.

At the conclusion of Col. Nugent's address the resolutions were
adopted unanimously and the convention adjourned sine die.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] These proceedings appeared in _The Vicksburg Commercial Daily Advertiser_, May 5, 1879.

HOW THE NEGROES WERE DUPED[1]

WASHINGTON LETTER TO _New York Herald_.

Gorgeously illuminated chromo-lithographs of Kansas scenes have
been distributed among the blacks. The gentleman who has seen
some of these chromos writes that the most ravishing presentment
of rural life in Kansas is depicted. The Negroes look on the
State as a second paradise, compared with which old Canaan is a
Florida swamp. One of these pictures, entitled "A Freedman's
Home," represents a fine landscape, with fields of ripening grain
stretching away to the setting sun.

In the foreground, illuminated by a marvelous sunset, stood the
freedman's home. It was a picturesque cottage with gables, dormer
windows and wide verandas. French windows reached down to the
floor, and through the open casements appeared a seductive scene
in the family sitting room. The colored father, who had just
returned from his harvest fields, sat in an easy chair reading a
newspaper, while the children and babies rollicked on the floor
of the piazza. Through the open door of the kitchen the colored
wife could be seen directing the servants and cooks who were
preparing the evening meal. In the parlor, however, was the most
enchanting feature, for at a grand piano was poised the belle of
the household, and beside the piano where she was playing stood
her colored lover, devouring her with his eyes while he
abstractedly turned the leaves of her music. Just to one side of
the dwelling appeared a commodious barn and carriage house and
workmen busily engaged in putting in order their reapers and
mowers for the following day.

In one of these pictures, "Old Auntie" sits on the veranda
knitting stockings while she gazes on herds of buffalo and
antelope, which are feeding on the prairies beyond the wheat
fields. Approaching the gate a handsome colored man is seen
coming in from the hunt, with a dead buck and a string of wild
turkeys slung over his shoulders. These agricultural cartoons, in
vivid coloring, the writer reports are doing much to influence
the minds of the more ignorant Negroes.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This appeared in _The Vicksburg Commercial Daily Advertiser_, May 6, 1879.

REMARKS ON THIS EXODUS BY FREDERICK DOUGLASS[1]

WASHINGTON, May 6.

Fred. Douglass, marshal of the District, is out in a very strong
letter, published in the _National View_, the new Greenback organ
here, vigorously opposing the emigration of Negroes from the
South. He earnestly advises the colored men to remain at home.

The letter has caused a good deal of annoyance among the leading
Republicans, who have been vigorously working up this movement,
believing that it was a godsend to them and would be a strong
issue in future campaigns.

Fred. Douglass winds up his letter as follows:

"I am opposed to this exodus, because it is an untimely
concession to the idea that white people and colored people
cannot live together in peace and prosperity unless the whites
are a majority and control the legislation and hold the offices
of the State. I am opposed to this exodus, because it will pour
upon the people of Kansas and other Northern States a multitude
of deluded, hungry, homeless people to be supported in a large
measure by alms. I am opposed to this exodus, because it will
enable our political adversaries to make successful appeals to
popular prejudice (as in the case of the Chinese) on the ground
that these people, so ignorant and helpless, have been imported
for the purpose of making the North solid by outvoting
intelligent white Northern citizens. I am opposed to this exodus,
because 'rolling stones gather no moss;' and I agree with Emerson
that the men who made Rome or any other locality worth going to
see stayed there. There is, in my judgment, no part of the United
States where an industrious and intelligent man can serve his
race more wisely and efficiently than upon the soil where he was
born and reared and is known. I am opposed to this exodus because
I see in it a tendency to convert colored laboring men into
traveling tramps, first going North because they are persecuted,
and then returning South because they have been deceived in their
expectations, which will excite against themselves and against
our whole race an increasing measure of popular contempt and
scorn. I am opposed to this exodus because I believe that the
conditions of existence in the Southern States are steadily
improving, and that the colored man there will ultimately realize
the fullest measure of liberty and equality accorded and secured
in any section of our common country.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This appeared in _The Vicksburg Commercial Daily Advertiser_, May 7, 1879.

THE SENATE REPORT ON THE EXODUS OF 1879

Hearing of the commotion among the Negroes in Louisiana and Mississippi in 1879, Senator D. W. Voorhees, of Indiana, offered the following resolution which was accepted:

Whereas, large numbers of Negroes from the Southern States, and
especially from the State of North Carolina, are migrating to the
Northern States, and especially to the State of Indiana; and,

Whereas, it is currently alleged that they are induced to do so
by the unjust and cruel conduct of their white fellow citizens
toward them in the South; therefore,

_Be it Resolved_, That a committee of five members of this body
be appointed by its presiding officer, whose duty it shall be to
investigate the causes which have led to the aforesaid migration,
and to report the same to the Senate; and said committee shall
have power to send for persons and papers, compelling the defense
of witnesses, and to sit at any time.[1]

Thereupon Senator William Windom, of Minnesota, offered the following amendment which led to the discussion of all sorts of phases of the race problem and finally to a majority and minority report on the exodus:[2]

_And Be it Therefore Resolved_, That in case said committee shall
find that said migration of colored people from the South has
been caused by cruel and unjust treatment or by the denial or
abridgement of personal or political rights, have so far inquired
and reported to the Senate, first; what, if any, action of
Congress may be necessary to secure to every citizen of the
United States the full and free enjoyment of all rights
guaranteed by the constitution; second; where the peaceful
adjustment of the colored race of all sectional issues may not be
best secured by the distribution of the colored race through
their partial migration from those States and congressional
districts where, by reason of their numerical majority, they are
not allowed to freely and peacefully exercise the rights of
citizenship; and third; that said committee shall inquire and
report as to the expediency and practicability of providing such
territory or territories as may be necessary for the use and
occupation of persons who may desire to migrate from their
present homes in order to secure the free, full, and peaceful
enjoyment of their constitutional rights and privileges.[2a]

REPORT

_The Select Committee, appointed by the Senate to investigate the
causes which have led to the migration of the Negroes from the
Southern States to the Northern States, having duly considered
the same, beg leave to submit the following report_:[3]

On the 18th day of December, 1879, the Senate passed the
following resolution:

Whereas, large numbers of Negroes from the Southern States are
emigrating to the Northern States; and,

Whereas, it is currently alleged that they are induced to do so
by the unjust and cruel conduct of their white fellow-citizens
towards them in the South, and by the denial or abridgement of
their personal and political rights and privileges; therefore,

_Be it Resolved_, That a committee of five members of this body
be appointed by its presiding officer, whose duty it shall be to
investigate the causes which have led to the aforesaid
emigration, and to report the same to the Senate; and said
committee shall have power to send for persons and papers, and to
sit at any time.

In obedience to this resolution the committee proceeded to take
testimony on the 19th day of January, and continuing from time to
time until 153 witnesses had been examined, embracing persons
from the States of North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi,
Louisiana, Texas, Missouri, Kansas, and Indiana. Much of this
testimony is of such a character as would not be received in a
court of justice, being hearsay, the opinions of witnesses, &c.,
but we received it with a view to ascertaining, if possible, the
real state of facts in regard to the condition of the Southern
colored people, their opinions and feelings, and the feelings and
opinions of their white neighbors. We think it clearly
established from the testimony that the following may be said to
be the causes which have induced this migration of the colored
people from various portions of the South to Northern States,
chiefly to Kansas, and Indiana: That from North Carolina, the
State to which we first directed our attention, was undoubtedly
induced in a great degree by Northern politicians, and by Negro
leaders in their employ, and in the employ of railroad lines.

Examining particularly into the condition of the colored men in
that State, it was disclosed by the testimony of whites and
blacks, Republicans and Democrats, that the causes of discontent
among those people could not have arisen from any deprivation of
their political rights or any hardship in their condition. A
minute examination into their situation shows that the average
rate of wages, according to the age and strength of the hand for
field labor, was from eight to fifteen dollars per month,
including board and house to live in, garden and truck patches,
around the house, fire-wood, and certain other privileges, all
rent free.

These, added to the extra labor which could be earned by hands
during the season of gathering turpentine and resin, or of
picking cotton made the general average of compensation for labor
in that State quite equal to if not better than in any Northern
State to which these people were going, to say nothing of the
climate of North Carolina, which was infinitely better adapted to
them.

The closest scrutiny could detect no outrage or violence
inflicted upon their political rights in North Carolina for many
years past. They all testified that they voted freely; that their
votes were counted fairly; that no improper influence whatsoever
was exerted over them; and many were acquiring real estate, and
were enjoying the same privileges of education for their
children, precisely, that the whites were enjoying.

It was also disclosed by the testimony that there existed aid
societies in the city of Washington, in the city of Topeka,
Kans., Indianapolis, and elsewhere throughout the West, whose
avowed object was to furnish aid to colored men migrating to the
West and North; and notwithstanding that the agents and members
of these societies generally disclaimed that it was their
intention to induce any colored men to leave their homes, but
only to aid in taking care of them after they had arrived, yet it
was established undeniably, not only that the effect of these
societies and of the aid extended by them operated to cause the
exodus originally, but that they stimulated it directly by
publishing and distributing among the colored men circulars
artfully designed and calculated to stir up discontent. Every
single member, agent, friend, or sympathizer with these societies
and their purposes were ascertained to belong to the Republican
party, and generally to be active members thereof. Some of the
circulars contained the grossest misrepresentation of facts, and
in almost all cases the immigrants expected large aid from the
government of clothes, or land, or money or free transportation,
or something of that kind. Hundreds of them, on given days at
various points in the South, crowded to the depots or to the
steamboat landings upon a rumor that free transportation was to
be furnished to all who would go. It was also disclosed by the
testimony on the part of some very candid and intelligent
witnesses that their object in promoting this exodus of the
colored people was purely political. They thought it would be
well to remove a sufficient number of blacks from the South,
where their votes could not be made to tell, into close States in
the North, and thus turn the scale in favor of the Republican
party.

Wages, rents, method of cropping on shares, &c., were inquired
into in all of the Southern States mentioned, and the fact
ascertained that the aggregate was about the same as in North
Carolina. In most of the Southern States, where wages were higher
than in North Carolina, expenses were also higher, so that the
aggregate, as before stated, was about the same.

One cause of complaint alleged as a reason for this exodus of the
colored people from the South was their mistreatment in the
courts of justice. Directing our attention to this the committee
have ascertained that in many of the districts of the South the
courts were under entire Republican control--judges, prosecuting
attorneys, sheriffs, &c., and that there were generally as many
complaints from districts thus controlled as there were from
districts which were under the control of the Democratic
officials; and that the whole of the complaints taken together
might be said to be such as are generally made by the ignorant
who fail to receive in courts what they think is justice.

Your committee found no State or county in the South, into which
this investigation extended, where colored men were excluded from
juries either in theory or in practice; they found no county or
district in the South where they were excluded, either in theory
or practice, from their share in the management of county affairs
and of the control of county government. On the contrary,
whenever their votes were in a majority we found that the
officers were most generally divided among the black people, or
among white people of their choice. Frequently we found the
schools to be controlled by them, especially that portion of the
school fund which was allotted to their race, and the complaints
which had been so often made of excessive punishment of the
blacks by the courts as compared with the whites upon
investigation in nearly all cases, proved to be either unfounded
in fact or that if there was an apparent excess of punishment of
a black man the cause was ascertained to be in the nature of the
crime with which he was charged, or the attendant circumstances.

The educational advantages in the South, the committee regret to
say, were found to be insufficient, and far inferior to those of
most of the States of the North, but such as they were we found
in every case that the blacks had precisely the same advantages
that the whites enjoyed; that the school fund was divided among
them according to numbers; that their teachers were quite as
good, and chosen with as much care; that their schools existed as
many months in the year; in short, the same facilities were
afforded to the blacks as were to the whites in this respect; and
that these schools were generally supported by the voluntary
taxation imposed by the legislatures composed of white men,
levied upon their own property for the common benefit.

With regard to political outrages which have formed the staple of
complaint for many years against the people of the South, your
committee diligently inquired, and have to report that they found
nothing or almost nothing new. Many old stories were revived and
dwelt upon by zealous witnesses, but very few indeed ventured to
say that any considerable violence or outrage had been exhibited
toward the colored people of the South within the last few years,
and still fewer of all those who testified upon this subject, and
who were evidently anxious to make the most of it, testified to
anything as within their own knowledge. It was all hearsay, and
nothing but hearsay, with rare exceptions.

Many of the witnesses before us were colored politicians, men who
make their living by politics, and whose business it was to stir
up feeling between the whites and blacks; keep alive the embers
of political hatred; and were men of considerable intelligence,
so that what they failed to set forth of outrages perpetrated
against their race may be safely assumed not to exist. Many, on
the contrary, were intelligent, sober, industrious, and
respectable men, who testified to their own condition, the amount
of property that they had accumulated since their emancipation,
the comfort in which they lived, the respect with which they
were regarded by their white neighbors. These universally
expressed the opinion that all colored men who would practice
equal industry and sobriety could have fared equally well; and in
fact their own condition was ample proof of the treatment of the
colored people by the whites of the South, and of their
opportunities to thrive, if they were so determined. Some of
these men owned so much as a thousand acres of real estate in the
best portions of the South; many of them had tenants of their
own, white men, occupying their premises and paying them rent;
and your committee naturally arrived at the conclusion that if
one black man could attain to this degree of prosperity and
respectable citizenship, others could, having the same capacity
for business and practicing the same sobriety and industry.

Your committee also directed their attention to the complaints
frequently made with regard to the laws passed in various States
of the South relating to landlord and tenant, and to the system
adopted by many planters for furnishing their tenants and
laborers with supplies. We found, upon investigation of these
laws, and of the witnesses in relation to their operation, that
as a general rule they were urgently called for by the
circumstances in which the South found itself after the war. The
universal adoption of homestead and personal property exemption
laws deprived poor men of credit, and the landlord class, for its
own protection, procured the passage of these laws giving them a
lien upon the crop made by the tenant until his rents and his
supplies furnished for the subsistence of the tenant and his
family had been paid and discharged; and while upon the surface
these laws appeared to be hard and in favor of the landlord, they
were, as was actually testified by many intelligent witnesses,
quite as much or more in favor of the tenant, as it enabled him
to obtain credit, to subsist himself and his family, and to make
a crop without any means whatsoever but his own labor. It was
alleged also that in many instances landlords, or if not
landlords then merchants, would establish country stores for
furnishing supplies to laborers and tenants, and the laborer,
having no money to go elsewhere or take the natural advantages of
competition, was forced to buy at these stores at exorbitant
prices.

Your committee regret to say that they found it to be frequently
the case that designing men, or bad and dishonest men, would take
advantage of the ignorance or necessity of the Negroes to obtain
these exorbitant prices; but at the same time your committee is
not aware of a spot on earth where the cunning and unscrupulous
do not take advantage of the ignorant; and cannot regard it as a
sufficient cause for these black people leaving their homes and
going into distant States and among strangers unless they had a
proper assurance that the State to which they were going
contained no dishonest men, or men who would take such advantage
of them. Your committee feel bound to say, however, in justice to
the planters of the South, that this abuse is not at all general
nor frequent; and that as a general rule while exorbitant prices
are exacted sometimes from men in the situation of the blacks,
yet the excuse for it is the risk which planter and merchant run.
Should a bad crop year come, should the Army worm devour the
cotton, or any other calamity come upon the crop, the landlord is
without his rent, the storekeeper is without his pay, and worse
than all the laborer is without a means of subsistence for the
next year. It is hoped and believed that when the heretofore
disturbed condition of the people of the South settles down into
regularity and order, the natural laws of trade and competition
will assert themselves and this evil will be to a great extent
remedied, whilst the diffusion of education among the colored
people will enable them to keep their own accounts and hold a
check upon those who would act dishonestly towards them.

On the whole, your committee express the positive opinion that
the condition of the colored people of the South is not only as
good as could have been reasonably expected, but is better than
if large communities were transferred to a colder and more
inhospitable climate, thrust into competition with a different
system of labor, among strangers who are not accustomed to them,
their ways, habits of thought and action, their idiosyncrasies,
and their feelings. While a gradual migration, such as
circumstances dictate among the white races, might benefit the
individual black man and his family as it does those of the white
race, we cannot but regard this wholesale attempt to transfer a
people without means and without intelligence, from the homes of
their nativity in this manner, as injurious to the people of the
South, injurious to the people and the labor system of the State
where they go, and, more than all, injurious to the last degree
to the black people themselves. That there is much in their
condition to be deplored in the South no one will deny; that that
condition is gradually and steadily improving in every respect is
equally true. That there have been clashings of the races in the
South, socially and politically, is never to be denied nor to be
wondered at; but when we come to consider the method in which the
people were freed, as the result of a bitter and desolating civil
war; and that for purposes of party politics these incompetent,
ignorant, landless, homeless people, without any qualifications
of citizenship, without any of the ties of property or the
obligations of education, were suddenly thrown into political
power, and the effort was made not only to place them upon an
equality with their late masters, but to absolutely place them in
front and hold them there by legislation, by military violence,
and by every other means that could possibly be resorted to; when
we consider these things no philosophical mind can behold their
present condition, and the present comparative state of peace and
amity between the two races, without wonder that their condition
is as good as it is.

No man can behold this extraordinary spectacle of two people
attempting to reconcile themselves in spite of the interference
of outsiders, and to live in harmony, to promote each other's
prosperity in spite of the bitter animosities which the sudden
elevation of the one has engendered, without the liveliest hope
that if left to themselves, the condition of the former subject
race will still more rapidly improve, and that the best results
may be reasonably and fairly expected.

Your committee is further of the opinion that all the attempts of
legislation; that all the inflammatory appeals of politicians
upon the stump and through the newspapers; that the wild and
misdirected philanthropy of certain classes of our citizens; that
these aid societies, and all other of the influences which are so
industriously brought to bear to disturb the equanimity of the
colored people of the South and to make them discontented with
their position, are doing them a positive and almost incalculable
injury, to say nothing of pecuniary losses which have thus been
inflicted upon Southern communities.

Your committee is further of opinion that Congress having enacted
all the legislation for the benefit of the colored people of the
South which under the Constitution it can enact, and having seen
that all the States of the South have done the same; that by the
Constitution of the United States and the constitutions of the
various States these people are placed upon a footing of perfect
equality before the law, and given the chance to work out their
own civilization and improvements, any further attempts at
legislation or agitation of the subject will but excite in them
hopes of exterior aid that will be disappointing to them, and
will prevent them from working out diligently and with care their
own salvation; that the sooner they are taught to depend upon
themselves, the sooner they will learn to take care of
themselves; the sooner they are taught to know that their true
interest is promoted by cultivating the friendship of their white
neighbors instead of their enmity, the sooner they will gain that
friendship; and that friendship and harmony once fully attained,
there is nothing to bar the way to their speedy civilization and
advancement in wealth and prosperity, except such as hinder all
people in that great work.

D. W. VOORHEES.
Z. B. VANCE.
GEO. II. PENDLETON.

REPORT OF THE MINORITY

_The undersigned, a minority of the committee appointed under
resolution of the Senate of December 15, 1879, to investigate the
causes which have led to the emigration of Negroes from the
Southern to the Northern States, submit the following report:_[4]

In the month of December last a few hundred colored men, women,
and children, discontented with their condition in North
Carolina, and hoping to improve it, were emigrating to Indiana.

This movement, though utterly insignificant in comparison with
the vastly greater numbers which were moving from other Southern
States into Kansas, seemed to be considered of very much more
importance, in certain quarters, on account of its alleged
political purposes and bearing. The theory upon which the
investigation was asked was that the emigration into the State of
Indiana was the result of a conspiracy on the part of Northern
leaders of the Republican party to colonize that State with
Negroes for political purposes. The utter absurdity of this
theory should have been apparent to everybody, for if the
Republican party, or its leaders, proposed to import Negroes into
Indiana for political purposes, why take them from North
Carolina? Why import them from a State where the Republicans hope
and expect to carry the election, when there were thousands upon
thousands ready and anxious to come from States certainly
Democratic. Why transport them by rail at heavy expense half way
across the continent when they could have taken them from
Kentucky without any expense, or brought them up the Mississippi
River by steamers at merely nominal cost? Why send twenty-five
thousand to Kansas to swell her 40,000 Republican majority, and
only seven or eight hundred to Indiana? These considerations
brand with falsehood and folly the charge that the exodus was a
political movement induced by Northern partisan leaders? And yet
to prove this absurd proposition the committee devoted six months
of hard and fruitless labor, during which they examined one
hundred and fifty-nine witnesses, selected from all parts of the
country, mainly with reference to their supposed readiness to
prove said theory, expended over $30,000 and filled three large
volumes of testimony.

The undersigned feel themselves authorized to say that there is
no evidence whatever even tending to sustain the charge that the
Republican party, or any of its leaders, have been instrumental,
either directly or indirectly, in aiding or encouraging these
people to come from their homes in the South to any of the
Northern States. A good deal of complaint was made that certain
"aid societies" in the North had encouraged and aided this
migration, and a futile attempt was made to prove that these
societies were acting in the interest of the Republican party.
Upon inquiry, however, it was ascertained that their purposes
were purely charitable and had no connection whatever with any
political motive or movement. They were composed almost wholly of
colored people, and were brought into existence solely to afford
temporary relief to the destitute and suffering emigrants who had
already come into the Northern and Western States.

In the spring of 1879 thousands of colored people, unable longer
to endure the intolerable hardships, injustice, and suffering
inflicted upon them by a class of Democrats in the South, had, in
utter despair, fled panic-stricken from their homes and sought
protection among strangers in a strange land. Homeless,
penniless, and in rags, these poor people were thronging the
wharves of Saint Louis, crowding the steamers on the Mississippi
River, and in pitiable destitution throwing themselves upon the
charity of Kansas. Thousands more were congregating along the
banks of the Mississippi River, hailing the passing steamers, and
imploring them for a passage to the land of freedom, where their
rights of citizens were respected and honest toil rewarded by
honest compensation. The newspapers were filled with accounts of
their destitution, and the very air was burdened with the cry of
distress from a class of American citizens flying from
persecutions which they could not longer endure. Their piteous
tales of outrage, suffering and wrong touched the hearts of the
more fortunate members of their race in the North and West, and
aid societies, designed to afford temporary relief, and composed
largely, almost wholly, of colored people, were organized in
Washington, Saint Louis, Topeka, and in various other places.
That they were organized to induce migration for political
purposes, or to aid or to encourage these people to leave their
homes for any purpose, or that they ever contributed one dollar
to that end, is utterly untrue, and there is absolutely nothing
in the testimony to sustain such a charge. Their purposes and
objects were purely charitable. They found a race of wretched
miserable people flying from oppression and wrong, and they
sought to relieve their distress. The refugees were hungry, and
they fed them: in rags, and they clothed them; homeless, and they
sheltered them; destitute, and they found employment for
them--only this and nothing more.

The real origin of the exodus movement and the organizations at
the South which have promoted it are very clearly stated by the
witnesses who have been most active in regard to it.

Henry Adams, of Shreveport, Louisiana, an uneducated colored
laborer, but a man of very unusual natural abilities, and, so far
as the committee could learn, entirely reliable and truthful,
states that he entered the United States Army in 1866 and
remained in it until 1869; that when he left the Army he returned
to his former home at Shreveport, and, finding the condition of
his race intolerable, he and a number of other men who had also
been in the Army set themselves to work to better the condition
of their people.

In 1870--

He says--

a parcel of us got together and said we would organize ourselves
into a committee and look into affairs and see the true condition
of our race, to see whether it was possible we could stay under a
people who held us in bondage or not.

That committee increased until it numbered about five hundred and
Mr. Adams says:

Some of the members of the committee was ordered by the committee
to go into every State in the South where we had been slaves,
and post one another from time to time about the true condition
of our race, and nothing but the truth.

In answer to the question whether they traveled over various
States he said:

"Yes, sir; and we worked, some of us, worked our way from place
to place, and went from State to State and worked--some of them
did--amongst our people, in the fields, everywhere, to see what
sort of a living our people lived--whether we could live in the
South amongst the people that held us as slaves or not. We
continued that on till 1874. Every one paid his own expenses,
except the one we sent to Louisiana and Mississippi. We took
money out of our pockets and sent him, and said to him you must
now go to work. You can't find out anything till you get amongst
them. You can talk as much as you please, but you got to go right
into the field and work with them and sleep with them to know all
about them."

I think about one hundred or one hundred and fifty went from one
place or another.

Q. What was the character of the information that they gave you?
A. Well, the character of the information they brought to us was
very bad, sir.

* * * * *

Q. Do you remember any of these reports that you got from members
of your committee?--A. Yes, sir; they said in several parts where
they was that the land rent was still higher there in that part
of the country than it was where we first organized it, and the
people was still being whipped, some of them, by the old owners,
the men that had owned them as slaves, and some of them was being
cheated out of their crops just the same as they was there.

Q. Was anything said about their personal and political rights in
these reports as to how they were treated?--A. Yes; some of them
stated that in some parts of the country where they voted they
would be shot. Some of them stated that if they voted the
Democratic ticket they would not be injured.

Q. Now let us understand more distinctly, before we go any
further, the kind of people who composed that association. The
committee, as I understand you, was composed entirely of laboring
people?--A. Yes, sir.

Q Did it include any politicians of either color, white or
black?--A. No politicianers didn't belong to it, because we
didn't allow them to know nothing about it, because we was
afraid that if we allowed the colored politicianers to belong to
it he would tell it to the Republican politicianers, and from
that the men that was doing all this to us would get hold of it
too, and then get after us.

* * * * *

Q. About what time did you lose all hope and confidence that your
condition could be tolerable in the Southern States?--A. Well we
never lost all hopes in the world till 1877.

Q. Why did you lose all hope in that year?--A. Well, we found
ourselves in such condition that we looked around and we seed
that there was no way on earth, it seemed, that we could better
our condition there, and we discussed that thoroughly in our
organization in May. We said that the whole South--every State in
the South--had got into the hands of the very men that held us
slaves--from one thing to another--and we thought that the men
that held us slaves was holding the reins of government over our
heads in every respect almost, even the constable up to the
governor. We felt we had almost as well be slaves under these
men. In regard to the whole matter that was discussed it came up
in every council. Then we said there was no hope for us and we
had better go.

Q. You say, then, that in 1877 you lost all hope of being able to
remain in the South, and you began to think of moving somewhere
else?--A. Yes; we said we was going if we had to run away and go
into the woods.

Q. About how many did this committee consist of before you
organized your council? Give us the number as near as you can
tell.--A. As many as five hundred in all.

Q. The committee, do you mean? A. Yes; the committee has been
that large.

Q. What was the largest number reached by your colonization
council, in your best judgment?--A. Well, it is not exactly five
hundred men belonging to the council that we have in our council,
but they all agreed to go with us and enroll their names with us
from time to time, so that they have now got at this time
ninety-eight thousand names enrolled.

Q. Then through that council, as sort of subscribers to its
purpose and acts and for carrying out its objects, there were
ninety-eight thousand names?--A. Yes; ninety-eight thousand names
enrolled.

Q. In what parts of the country were these ninety-eight thousand
people scattered?--A. Well some in Louisiana--the majority of
them in Louisiana--and some in Texas, and some in Arkansas. We
joins Arkansas.

Q. Were there any in Mississippi?--A. Yes, sir; a few in
Mississippi.

Q. And a few in Alabama?--A. Yes, sir; a few in Alabama, too.

Q. Did the organization extend at all into other States farther
away?--A. O, yes, sir.

Q. Have you members in all the Southern States?--A. Not in every
one, but in a great many of the others.

Q. Are these members of that colonization council in
communication as to the condition of your race, and as to the
best thing to be done to alleviate their troubles?--A. O, yes.

Q. What do you know about inducements being held out from
politicians of the North, or from politicians anywhere else, to
induce these people to leave their section of country and go into
the Northern or Western States?--A. There is nobody has written
letters of that kind, individually--not no white persons, I know,
not to me, to induce anybody to come.

Q. Well, to any of the other members of your council?--A. No, I
don't think to any of the members. If they have, they haven't
said nothing to me about it.

It appears also from the evidence of Samuel L. Perry, of North
Carolina, a colored man, who accompanied most of the emigrants
from that State to Indiana, and who had more to do with the
exodus from that quarter than any other man, that the movement
had its origin as far back as 1872, as the following questions
and answers will show:

Q. You have heard a good deal of this testimony with reference to
this exodus from North Carolina. Now begin at the beginning and
tell us all you know about it.--A. Well, the beginning, I
suppose, was in this way: The first idea or the first thing was,
we used to have little meetings to talk over these matters. In
1872 we first received some circulars or pamphlets from O. F.
Davis, of Omaha, Nebraska.

Q. In 1872?--A. Yes, sir; in 1872--giving a description of
government lands and railroads that could be got cheap; and we
held little meetings then; that is, we would meet and talk about
it Sunday evenings--that is, the laboring class of our
people--the only ones I knew anything about; I had not much to do
with the big professional Negroes, the rich men. I did not
associate with them much, but I got among the workingmen, and
they would take these pamphlets and read them over.

Mr. Perry says that the feeling in favor of migrating subsided
somewhat, but sprung up again in 1876. From that time down to
1879 there were frequent consultations upon the subject, much
dissatisfaction expressed respecting their condition, and a
desire to emigrate to some part of the West. He says about "that
time I was a subscriber to the New York Herald, and from an
article in that paper the report was that the people were going
to Kansas, and we thought we could go to Kansas, too; that we
could get a colony to go West. That was last spring. We came back
and formed ourselves into a colony of some hundred men." They did
not, however, begin their westward movements until the fall of
1879, when it being ascertained by the railroad companies that a
considerable number of people were proposing to migrate from
North Carolina to the West, several railroad companies, notably
the Baltimore and Ohio, offered to certain active and influential
colored men $1 per head for all the passengers they could procure
for the respective competing lines.

By reference to this evidence, part 3, page 136, it will be seen
that the emigration movement in Alabama originated as far back as
the year 1871, when an organization of colored people, called the
State Labor Union, delegated Hon. George F. Marlow to visit
Kansas, and other parts of the West, for the purpose of examining
that country and reporting back to a future convention his views
as to the expediency of removing thereto. A convention of colored
people was held again in 1872, at which Mr. Marlow made the
following glowing report of the condition of things in Kansas and
the inducements that State offered to the colored people. He
said:

In August, 1871, being delegated by your president for the
purpose, I visited the State of Kansas, and here give the results
of my observations, briefly stated.

It is a new State, and as such possesses many advantages over the
old.

It is much more productive than most other States.

What is raised yields more profit than elsewhere, as it is raised
at less expense.

The weather and roads enable you to do more work here than
elsewhere.

The climate is mild and pleasant.

Winters short and require little food for stock.

Fine grazing country; stock can be grazed all winter.

The population is enterprising, towns and villages spring up
rapidly and great profits arise from all investments.

Climate dry, and land free from swamps.

The money paid to doctors in less healthy regions can here be
used to build up a house.

People quiet and orderly, schools and churches to be found in
every neighborhood, and ample provision for free schools is made
by the State.

Money, plenty, and what you raise commands a good price.

Fruits of all kinds easily grown and sold at large profits.

Railroads are being built in every direction.

The country is well watered.

Salt and coal are plentiful.

It is within the reach of every man, no matter how poor, to have
a home in Kansas. The best lands are to be had at from $2 to $10
an acre, _on time_. The different railroads own large tracts of
land, and offer liberal inducements to emigrants. You can get
good land in some places for $1.25 an acre. The country is mostly
open prairie, and level, with deep, rich soil, producing from
forty to one hundred bushels of corn and wheat to the acre. The
corn grows about eight or nine feet high, and I never saw better
fruit anywhere than there.

The report was adopted.

The feeling of the colored people in that State in 1872 was well
expressed by Hon. Robert H. Knox, of Montgomery, a prominent
colored citizen, who, in addressing the convention, spoke as
follows:

I have listened with great attention to the report of the
commissioner appointed by authority of the State Labor Union to
visit Kansas, and while I own the inducements held out to the
laboring man in that far-off State are much greater than those
enjoyed by our State, I yet would say let us rest here awhile
longer; let us trust in God, the President, and Congress to give
us what is most needed here, personal security to the laboring
masses, the suppression of violence, disorder, and kukluxism, the
protection which the Constitution and laws of the United States
guarantee, and to which as citizens and men we are entitled.
Failing in these, it is time then, I repeat, to desert the State
and seek homes elsewhere where there may be the fruition of hopes
inaugurated when by the hand of Providence the shackles were
stricken from the limbs of four million men, where there may be
enjoyed in peace and happiness by your own fireside the earnings
of your daily toil.