For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this bill an appropriation of $5,000,000 was asked.
The bill excited some interest. It received most naturally the unqualified support of Senator Hampton, and it was also acceptable to Senator Vest of Missouri, and other Southern men of prominence; but it was not only opposed by Northern and Western senators but also by one at least from the South, Senator Vance, of North Carolina, although the argument of the latter was marked by neither strength nor depth of thought. On the other hand the argument with which Senator Butler presented his bill deserves consideration at some length and is apt to receive it in the future. While presented in a different style, it is comparable to the utterance of the great orator and debater of his State, Senator Hayne, upon somewhat the same subject in 1827.
Senator Butler said:
“I shall confine myself to a dispassionate and simple statement of facts and of such reference to events, as candor and truth justify.... To my mind it is too grave a subject to be diverted by party considerations or confined within the narrow boundaries and limits of party lines. It is all pervading, momentous and important.... Whoever concludes, that the quieting of the agitation which concerns the political status of the Negro would be a settlement of the race question, discloses, how little he knows of its magnitude and comprehensiveness and how superficially he looks at it.” ...
Proceeding with his argument Butler suggested:
“The inquiry will be made why should the Negro move out of the Southern States? He will not except on his own volition. There is nothing in this bill which coerces him or compels him to move. My answer, however, is that it would be for his own good and for the good of his white neighbors also. It cannot have escaped the attention of the most casual observer that where the Negro remains in large masses and exceeds in numbers their white neighbors, they not only do not advance, but actually retrograde. It is not needful for any intelligent white man to read St. John’s dismal narrative of ‘The Black Republic of Hayti,’ or Bruce’s graphic story, ‘The plantation Negro as a Freeman,’ or Froude’s ‘Negro in the West Indies,’ to establish the truth of the proposition. On the other hand, observation and experience convince us, that in regions of the South, where the whites are largely in the majority, the Negro is better off and the white man is better off. The Negro dresses better and is more intelligent and thrifty and the white man is more prosperous and progressive.... It is conceded on all hands, that if the Negro is to attain the full stature of his manhood, if he is to become an independent self-reliant, self-respecting man, and be made fully competent to discharge all the high responsibilities and duties of life, he must finally rely upon himself, he must elevate himself in the moral social and industrial scale by his own exertions, by his own self-assertion. To do this effectually, he must have a fair chance in an open field. Can he be expected to accomplish this; can it be expected of him under the shadow and amid the scenes of dependence and inferiority which enshroud him in the surroundings of his former debased condition? Take him away from them and allow his pulse of freedom to throb unobstructed by the memories and associations of his servile bondage. I am not one of those who believe in the total, hopeless depravity of the Negro race. I believe that there are great possibilities in store for him. I do not undervalue the worth of the labor of the Negro in what was accomplished in the way of the material development of the South. All that I mean to say is but for that kind of labor, the South would have been far ahead of her present development.... Nor do I underestimate the obligations we are all under to the race for the fidelity and most praiseworthy conduct during our depleting civil strife. Whatever fate the future may have in store for him nothing can deprive the Negro of this record; nothing can destroy or obliterate the strong ties of affectionate kindness between him and his former owner.... I repeat Sir it is for his good and the good of his future generations, as well as the good of his former master and his descendants, that I would have him more generally distributed among the great mass of his white fellow citizens, from whose energy and thrift and enlightenment and progress he can gather hope and inspiring example in his struggle for an equal chance in life.... It is not an uncommon thing to hear men say—‘Let the negro alone; he makes a good peasant class; he is the best laborer we can get for the cotton fields, etc.’ Do not all such forget that there is no such thing as a peasant class under our form of government? Do they not forget that the Negro is a free American citizen, entitled by virtue of his citizenship, if on no other account, to equality before the law with the foremost citizens of the land, equality of opportunity, equality of rights.... Is it not about time, Mr. President that the thinking men of this country, men who have some concern for the future of coming generations as well as the temporary triumph of party should meet upon the common plane of the general good and dispose of this question fairly and humanely?... I should welcome such a day as a new era in our history, from which to date new hopes for the perpetuity of a constitutional republic.”[231]
It is hardly necessary to state that the bill did not pass. With the exception of his colleague, Senator Hampton, and Senator Vest, of Missouri, it scarcely received any support, and yet these Southern men recognized, more than thirty years ago, what is only now forcing itself upon the consciousness of the North, because the Negroes themselves have at last perceived the necessity of it.
But what do the prosperous think of? At this time little or nothing was known of the two little white republics, the Transvaal and the Orange River Free State, except that they maintained themselves without assistance in the heart of South Africa, surrounded by millions of warlike African savages. To the author of this work it seemed in 1890 worth while for the Northern statesmen and the Northern public to inform themselves of the views and policies of these people, before they legislated for the South on matters pertaining to the Race Problem. These little peoples had had no contact with Southern men. They came from a different nationality. Would it not be well for our Northern brethren to study their methods before legislating for the South? The suggestion was presented to The New York World, then calling for ideas. But that great paper, under Mr. Pulitzer, could not see the value. Later, although conquered, as the South was, the Boers have made their views felt in the world.
Was not an opportunity missed for obtaining helpful information in advance of Bigelow’s White Man’s Africa? Was not his book an indication of an unexplored field? Did it not influence opinion in the north of the United States?