It was not a time, however, for sentimental considerations, and to fuse the general mass of the convention into a condition appreciative of the scheme it was aimed to present at that stage in the proceedings, Senator Tillman reviewed at great length and with terrific force the previous frightful excesses of carpet-bag government and Negro rule in the State. Upon the adoption of a resolution for the incorporation of his speech in the journal of the Convention, with a fairness, a milder man might not have exhibited, he requested that the replies of such of the Negro delegates as desired to speak, should also be therein printed.
That Negro delegate designated by him as “the ablest man of color I have ever met,” W. J. Whipper, (Dan. Chamberlain’s piece de resistance in the seventies), certainly the most notorious of all who rose to prominence in Reconstruction days, failed to avail himself of the privilege. While far less able, with a manly determination distinctly to his credit, Robert Smalls did, and defended his character with courage. He was accused of corruption. He pointed to the fact that he had been pardoned, and he claimed with great earnestness that the pardon had been granted him without solicitation on his part, and in spite of his urgent demand for trial. While his remarks do not indicate any exceptional intelligence, nor his reasons for desertion the clearest conception of what constitutes public morality, there is a ring of manly courage in his speech which wins sympathy.
After setting forth the above claim, he concluded as follows:
“Mr. President, I am through with this matter. It should not have been brought here. All the thieves are gone, they are scattered over the nation; but I have remained here. My race has honored me with a seat on this floor and I shall serve them to the best of my ability. My race needs no special defense, for the past history of them in this country proves them to be the equal of any people anywhere. All they need is an equal chance in the battle of life. I am proud of them and by their acts towards me, I know they are not ashamed of me, for they have at all times honored me with their votes. I stand here the equal of any man. I started out in the war with the Confederates; they threatened to punish me, and I left them. I went to the Union Army. I fought in seventeen battles to make glorious and perpetuate the flag that some of you trampled under your feet. Innocent of every charge attempted to be made here against me, no act or word of yours can in any way blur the record that I have made at home and abroad. Mr. President, I am through and shall not hereafter notice any personal remark. You have the facts in the case, by them I ask to be judged.”[241]
But it must not be imagined from this, that the speaker was in any sense hacked. On the contrary he continued to participate in the work of the convention to the best of his ability.
As an amendment to Section 34, of the draft of the Constitution, which provided—“The marriage of any white person with a Negro or mulatto person who shall have one-eighth or more Negro blood, shall be unlawful and void.”—Smalls proposed the addition,—“and any white person who lives and cohabits with a Negro, mulatto or person who shall have one-eighth or more Negro blood shall be disqualified from holding any office of emolument or trust in this State, and the offspring of any such living or cohabiting, shall bear the name of father and shall be entitled to inherit and acquire property the same as if they were legitimate.” But the Convention voted it down and not improperly, for though clever politics, the concluding clause was vicious legislation. The amiable boldness of the mulatto Smalls won for him, however, general tolerance and some regard; but he was not intellectually in the class with that octaroon, Thomas E. Miller, who, in the minds of most persons, made on this occasion the greatest display of talent.
Miller made many speeches and furnished much acceptable copy for the press. He, therefore, not unnaturally, loomed large in the eyes of the knights of the quill, and his ablest speech was later utilized, by the most cultured representative of the race in this country, Professor W. E. Burghardt DuBois, as one buttress of a defense of Reconstruction, in a paper read by him at the annual meeting of the American Historical Association in 1909, which was published later in the Review. Still the speeches of both Smalls and Miller were defensive.
Of another and less known colored delegate to this convention, this could not be said as denoting his attitude. While bearing himself with dignity and strictly observing the proprieties of debate, the mulatto of whom mention is next made, eloquently illustrated the adage, that “the business of an opposition is to oppose.” The man and his efforts historically considered deserve some recognition.
James E. Wigg, was born at Linden Park, Bluffton, Beaufort District, South Carolina, March 25, 1850, the son of a colored woman by a white man. As a small boy he attracted the attention of Gen. David Hunter, upon whom he waited at Hilton Head, who, after the war, took him with him to Washington, D. C., and placed him at Whalen Institute. He was said to have been well versed in theology, and “an earnest follower of Swedenborg.”[242] His work in the Convention was marked by a distinct exhibition of intelligence. He submitted a draft for a constitution which was creditable, and he proposed an ordinance, to the Committee on Finance and Taxation, of distinct merit. It constituted politics of a high order. It was a bold challenge to the white majority, on a line hard to defend the unfavorable report of the Committee in response to.
Wigg’s ordinance was as follows: