Shadow and Light: An Autobiography with Reminiscences of the Last and Present CenturyGibbs, Mifflin Wistar
History
Shadow and Light: An Autobiography with Reminiscences of the Last and Present Century
Gibbs, Mifflin Wistar
African Americans
Prominent among the attendants were T. T. Fortune, of New York; N. W.
Cuney and E. J. Scott, of Texas; W. A. Pledger and H. E. Johnson, of
Georgia; P. B. S. Pinchback, James Lewis, and J. Madison Vance, of
Louisiana; Stevens, of Alabama; Stevens, of Louisville, Ky.; E. Fortune,
of Florida; C. W. Anderson, of New York, and others.
[Illustration: TIMOTHY T FORTUNE.
Editor and Publisher of "New York Age."
Born in Jackson County, Florida, October 6, 1856--Polished and Able--On
the Staff of the White Press at Metropolitan Centers--The Most
Aggressive and Trenchant Writer of the Negro Press.]
The late N. W. Cuney, of Texas, was a man of commanding presence,
forceful and emphatic as a speaker; honest, tireless and
self-sacrificing. His sterling qualities as a leader of men grows
brighter as time recedes from his demise.
Fearless in enunciation, the timid thought him impractical. But there is
ever this concerning unpopular truth: When it induces honest thought
that burns to be spoken, you can depend it is not confined to a single
possessor; it has habitation in many hearts. But he alone is the "leader
of leaders," who, with Eolian harp or trumpet call summons its
worshipers. Among matters discussed was the charge that Negro
delegations were a marketable commodity, with no convictions as to
national policy, no regard for manly probity, and were ever at the beck
of the highest purchaser in the political market. Such a sweeping charge
is most unjust; but, if granted, the admission cuts deeply in the
opposite direction, requiring no analysis to discover the preponderance
of venality. It may happen between the receiver of stolen goods and the
thief that impulse to steal is sometimes weakened by uncertainty of
market. The Negro delegate has no market to seek; the market is jammed
under his nose at every turn by immaculate white men, often entrusted
with large sums to be placed "where it will do the most good," report to
those interested the purchase of Negro votes, when such was not the
fact. Satisfied they had placed it where it would do them the most good,
by allowing it to rest in their pockets, this was not only hard on the
Negro, but mean to charge him up with it, then not let him have it. To
say there were no colored men susceptible to such advances would be as
idle as to say there were no white men thereby influenced; but in either
case let us hope it was the exception and not the rule.
Conferences for statement and appeal for removing harsh conditions are
historic, ante-dating and creating constitutional government; for,
implanted in the hearts is a consciousness of right, however much
selfish hate may shut out recognition, or avarice stifle its egress, and
the measure of accord granted just claims of the petitioner is the moral
and Christian status of a commonwealth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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