The Olivia Letters: Being Some History of Washington City for Forty Years as Told by the Letters of a Newspaper CorrespondentBriggs, Emily Edson
History
The Olivia Letters: Being Some History of Washington City for Forty Years as Told by the Letters of a Newspaper Correspondent
Briggs, Emily Edson
United States -- Politics and government -- 1865-1933; Washington (D.C.) -- History
A band of loyal Georgians are in Washington, praying that the power
of the Government may be exerted for their protection. They have seen
the President, who did not hesitate to give them some kind, strong
words; but it remains to be shown whether Congress will hearken to
them. The delegation is composed mostly of colored men, with Governor
Rufus B. Bullock at their head. A meeting was called at Lincoln
Hall, by the citizens of the District, to show their sympathy for
the cause which these Southern men represent. Mayor Bowen presided;
John W. Forney made the welcoming address; while Senator Thayer and
Representative Maynard spoke some good, strong, manly words, which
must have brought the blush to Congress if Congress had been present
to hear it. The great feature of the evening were the speeches made
by the Southern men. Governor Bullock said little. Governor Scott
of South Carolina, though unaccustomed to public speaking, made his
short sentences into arrows, and fired them at the audience with the
precision of a William Tell. Governor Scott has been a soldier. The
exigencies of war stranded him on Southern soil. He has taken root
there, where he has grown into a goodly tree, and not a single Ku
Klux has yet dared to lay the axe at the root of it.
It will always remain a secret “who struck Billy Patterson” and why
the noble governor of Georgia should be surnamed Bullock, for in
personal appearance he bears not the slightest resemblance to that
fiery, untamed animal. It is true, he has a handsome shock of hair on
his head, but he is as destitute of horns as the administration is of
knavery, and a better looking white man is seldom to be found.
Most noticeable on the platform was Simeon Beard, chairman of the
Georgia delegation, a man whose superb oratory and strange personal
appearance are most difficult to describe. Take away the prejudice
of the race which, alas! descends to us in the same way as the color
of our eyes or the length of our hair--a prejudice which education,
prayer, or any other softening, refining influence of civilization
never can remove--rend this veil asunder, and we should see a man
that we could honor as President.
Simeon Beard has the lithe, erect form, and the smooth, raven locks
of the Indian. Both African and white blood course in his veins;
his complexion is that pale, rich brown--the same color with which
nature loves to tinge the leaves in mid-autumn. But the spirit of
some animal long kept at bay looks out of his deepset eyes, and
his words burn as if they had been forged in a redhot furnace. He
made the audience feel the print of the nails in far-away Georgia.
Only a little longer will Frederick Douglass stand the acknowledged
mouthpiece of the mixed races and the darker stratum which underlies
it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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