Notes of a Southern Trip. The Freedmen's North Carolina Convention. Character and Work of the Delegates. Some Sketches of Leading Men. The Resolutions, the Address to the State Convention, &c.

Notes of a Southern Trip. The Freedmen's North Carolina Convention. Character and Work of the Delegates. Some Sketches of Leading Men. The Resolutions, the Address to the State Convention, &c.

From Gale. 19th Century U.S. Newspapers. ©2008 Gale, a part of Cengage Learning, Inc. Reproduced by permission. www.cengage.com/permissions

Boston Daily Advertiser

1865-10-09

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NOTES OF A SOUTHERN TRIP.

The THE FREEDMEN'S NORTH CAROLINA CONVENTION.

Character and Work of the Delegates.

Some Sketches of Leading Men.

The Resolutions, the Address to the State Convention, &c. [from our

[FROM OUR SPECIAL correspondent.]

Exchange Hotel, Raleigh, Oct. 3, 1865.

Just what reasons certain colored men had for calling a convention of the Freedmen of North Carolina do not appear of record. The convention has, however, proved its own justification for being; and has done a good work not alone for the freedmen of this State but for the freedmen of the entire South.

It seems to have originated in the fertile brain of Mr. A. H. Galloway, a mulatto of Fayetteville, w did the Union some good service during the war; but the call came from a committee of three appointed at a meeting held in Wilmington about a month ago: --

"Let the leading men of each separate district issue a call for a meeting, that delegates may be chosen to express the sentiments of the freedmen at Raleigh on the 29th of September, and let each county send as many delegates as it has representatives in the Legislature. Rally, old men, we want the counsel of your years and experience; rally, young men, we want your loyal presence, and need the ardor of youth to stimulate the timid; and may the spirit of our God come with the people to hallow all our sittings and wisely direct all our actions. A. H. Galloway, John Randolph, jr., and George W. Price, Committee."

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The convention met on Friday last, and terminated its labors today, after a four days' session. The sittings were held in the African church of this city. It is a plain, white, wooden building, with floor accommodations for about three hundred persons, and gallery accommodations for about one hundred more. Its floor is carpeted, and its seats cushioned. The noticeable feature in it is a large and elegant bust of Mr. Lincoln, standing on a bracket, and against a black back-ground, in the farther end and over the pulpit seat. Over the bust is a canvas, bordered with black, on which is neatly inscribed the last paragraph of Mr. Lincoln's last Message, beginning with "With malice toward none and charity for all," &c. And the one thing which that church and congregation never will part with is this exceedingly life-like bust of the man whom they call "Father" and "Deliverer."

The call provided for 122 delegates. On the assembling of such as appeared on Friday, it was found that but about half the counties in the State were represented. "We should have counted it a great success "if even only a quarter had been represented," said one of the leading delegates--"as - "as it is, we think we "have achieved a great victory." Many of the delegates had regular credentials from the proper county officers, but the others were certified by only local organizations, church societies, &c. The difficulty of the occasion was met by resolving the affair into a general mass convention of those who had credentials of any sort from any organized body of freedmen. The aggregate of delegates was 117--all - all sincere, earnest men, and most of them here in "the spirit of our God." The great majority of them were freedmen, and not freemen--even even some of them were scarcely yet so much as freedmen.

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The convention was very much like the mass convention of white folks, "only a little more so." There were parties, cliques, demagogues, ambitious men - there was "log-rolling," "wire-pulling," and a general exhibition of most of the arts by which would-be leaders attempt to carry their ends against the will of the mass. It was pleasant to see, however, that the great body of the delegates not only had a pretty clear conception of what they wanted to do, but - as is not always the case with the convention delegates - also, of what they wanted not to do. The men who, by virtue of some education, some travel and some association with Northern people, aspired to rule matters for their own interest and aggrandizement, were very quietly shelved on the second day, and thereafter found that their power was gone. So, too, those of passionate nature and demagoguical spirit who undertook to uplift themselves on the breakers of angry epithet and inflammatory denunciation were also put aside after the first day. That there were some droll scenes is, of course, true. Many of the delegates were like great noisy, ignorant children, and acted very much as a drove of such children do when they "play" convention. Others knew nothing of any meetings but the religious gatherings of their own people, and appeared to imagine that tears and shouts and sobs and ejaculations were as much in order here as in the prayer meetings of the rural districts. The natural habit of the negro to exaggerate showed itself on the first day and in the first hour in a scramble for a seventh vice-presidency, and afterwards worked itself into furious speeches either about nothing or on wholly immaterial points. The dramatic element of the negro character come to the aid of his vivid imagination, and there were touches of pantomime that would have been instructive even to old Gabriel Ravel himself. Moreover, in the line of comedy-acting a dozen of these delegates were competent to give lessons to Warren, or Clarke, or Jefferson, and three or four of the eight sessions were, as pure entertainments, better than two hours with Gough, or any other master of humor known to the Northern public. The president's place was no office of mere honor, and the most diligent use of his powers would

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have been unequal to the task of keeping quiet and uniform good order.

Yet, when all these things are admitted, there is yet to be commended - the sincere earnestness of the delegates as a body, the liberal spirit of their debates, the catholicity of their views of duty in the present emergencies, the patient and cheerful tone of heart and head which prevailed, and the unfailing good humor mor which bridged all chasms and overcome all difficulties. Their extra passion come only from extra zeal; their turbulence at times was only the sudden flashing of warm good will for their people; their unseemly drollery was only a manifestation of the natural disposition to enjoyment even under the most adverse circumstances.

Perhaps a dozen of the delegates were not native to this State; but, with a few exceptions, those who took part in the debates or were in any way responsible ble for the action of the convention, were not only North Carolinians by birth, but slaves by growth - men who have always lived and expect to continue living in the State. It is also worth remarking that it was really a convention of colored men - not a colored men's convention engineered by white men. It was even so strictly a convention of the negroes of North Carolina that there was a good deal of sensitive jealousy toward one or two delegates born in this State, but educated in the schools and under the influences of the North. "We meant it for a convention of our own people," said one of the committee to me, "and these outsiders from Wilmington and "Newbern shall not control us." The deficiencies of the convention will, of course, be charged to the negroes of the State - its excellences also properly and in simple justice belong to them.

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Mr. A. H. Galloway, of much service with some of our officers and much association with Northern people, aspired to lead the convention which he had called, but it would not be led by him, for he was radical and passionate and of Jacobinical spirit. Mr. John P. Sampson, a young man of ability and liberal education in the Northern schools, a classmate of the late Colonel Robert Shaw, the editor of the "Colored Citizen," of Cincinnati, a delegate from Wilmington, where he still claims a residence, also aspired by the virtue of his superior advantages and his association and connection with friends of the negro in the North, to be the leader, but was also set aside by the convention, which had little sympathy with his flowery and somewhat wordy radicalism.

The real leader of the body was Mr. John H. Harris of this city,--a a man of perhaps one eighth white blood; a former slave who did his daily task with other farm negroes, and eat for hours, year in and year out, after that task was accomplished, in the fire-place, with a pine knot in one hand and a book in the other; who is, in the true sense, self-educated; an upholsterer by trade, and, latterly, a teacher by

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profession; a plain, patient, unassuming man, whose wise judgment, catholic views, genuine culture, and honest manhood, fit him to adorn any station in any society. With him, on the right and on the left, were Mr. Isham Swett, barber, of Fayetteville, of mature years, ready speech, moderate views; Mr. John R. Good, barber, of Newbern, of thoughtful heart and gray head and simple gentlemanhood; Mr. John Randolph, jr., of Greensborough, carpenter by trade and teacher by profession, radical in desire but conservative in action, longing for much, but content to make haste slowly; Mr. J. P. Shanks of Charlotte, of few public but many private words, and all of them words of soberness; Rev. Alexander Barr of Raleigh, diffident and unassuming, but of weight in all councils; Sergeant Foster of the 1st North Carolina Heavy Artillery, a good soldier of few words and careful deeds; Rev. George A. Rue, late chaplain of the 32d United States Colored Troops, a pure African of six years' ministerial service in Massachusetts, mostly in the eastern part, whom Northern favor had made neither haughty nor foolish; and Rev. J. W. Hood, of Northern birth, but some years residence in this State.

A great many unimportant matters were needlessly brought before the convention, and there was much talk on trivial affairs, and a deal of wordy debate in respect to some legitimate business. Yet even all this was not without its value, for it brought out many facts and opinions of general use to the delegates as individuals, and served to help them to closer fellowship and more unity of sentiment in respect to the future. The just rights of the freedmen are not to be gained in a day or in a year--will - will not be gained at all unless they can work together for a common end. Clanishness and the prejudice and bigotry that come in its train, are not wanted but there must be a manful and liberal and sincere brotherhood.

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The temper of the convention as a whole, and of at least four fifths of the delegates individually, found expression in the little, sober, temperate speech of Rev. J. W. Hood, on taking the chair as permanent president:- --

"There has never been, and perhaps never will be, a more important assemblage in North Carolina than this of which we, gentlemen, each form a part. We have met to deliberate in a Christian spirit upon the best interests of our people- holding up before God and men as our motto " "equal rights before the law," yet understanding it to be wise and proper that, whether in doors or out of doors, we should bear ourselves respectfully toward all men. Let us avoid all harsh expressions toward anybody or about any line of policy. Let us keep constantly in mind that this State is our home, and that the white people are our neighbors, and many of them our friends. We have all got to live here together--schemes schemes of colonization and deportation and expatriation are all nonsense; we are all here, and we have, as peoples, got to stay here; therefore let us, on our part, treat all men with courtesy, whether they be gentlemen or ruffians. The major part of the white people of the State are gentlemen and ladies, and if we respect ourselves we shall be respected. I think the best way to prepare a people for the exercise of their rights is to put them in practice of those rights, and so I think the time has come when we should be given ours; but I am well aware that we shall not gain them all at once. Let us have faith, and patience, and moderation, yet assert always that we want three things--first, first, the right to give evidence in the courts; second, the right to be represented in the jury box; and third, the right to vote. These rights we want, these rights we contend for, and these rights, under God, we must ultimately have."

The resolutions adopted by the convention express reverence for the memory of "those heroes, John "Brown, Robert G. Shaw," numerous others of less note, "and last and greatest, Abraham Lincoln"; hail with satisfaction the passage of the constitutional amendment, the organization of the Freedmen's Bureau, the establishment of schools for the education of 75,000 colored children, the admission of John S. Rock to the bar of the Supreme Court, the issuing of the emancipation proclamation, and the recognition of Hayti and Liberia; thank the good people of the North for their aid so freely extended to the freedmen in a thousand ways; thank that portion of the republican party led by

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Messrs. Chase, Greeley, Sumner and others for its efforts to secure to the colored man his rights fortnite through congressional butterfly action; declare that any colored man who will not do for another colored man what he would for a white man under similar circumstances is unworthy of respect; express the opinion that it is not for the interest of the colored people of the State to crowd too much into the cities, and advise them to remain at their old homes unless very important reasons exist for removing, labor on the farms and elsewhere, earn money and buy a little land, live temperately, honestly and industriously, and educate themselves and their children as much as they can.

A considerable part of one afternoon was given to debate upon a resolution which advised colored teachers for colored children and colored preachers for colored congregations. The resolution was supported by Messrs. Harris, Sampson, Bass and others, and opposed by Messrs. Galloway, Rue, Randolph, Good, Sweat and others. The argument for its passage was that it would tend to stimulate education among the young men and women; that against it was that it would serve to set up another wall between blacks and whites. Several delegates favored the general policy enunciated in the resolution, but opposed its passage on the ground that some of the more ignorant of their people would look upon it as a recommendation not to send their children to the schools established by the Freedmen’s Bureau and the aid societies of the North. This argument carried the day, and the resolution was tabled.

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The chief thing done by the convention, however, was to adopt an address for presentation to the State convention which met yesterday, and to the Legislature which meets in November. How this address should be prepared was a subject of anxious consideration. There was some fear at the close of the first day's session that the convention had fallen into control of the unwise and the hot-headed faction. The excitement natural to the hour wore off, however, before the next session, and the drawing up of the address was intrusted to a committee of five elected viva voce by the delegates. Five better men could not have been selected -- it was certain that their action would be wise and judicious; and the real good sense of the convention showed itself in the hearty unanimity [/unclear] with which it adopted this paper and appointed Messrs. Harris, Galloway and Good a good committee to present it.

An adjournment took place this afternoon-though -- though the delegates, having listened on Friday and Saturday evenings to addresses from their own number, and on yesterday evening to a very sensible address from Col. Whittlesey, Assistant Commissioner of the Freedman's Men's Bureau for this State, remain this evening to hear from Mr. Fish, remain this evening to hear from Mr. Fisk, Superintendent of Freedmen's Schools in North Carolina. Some of them will also remain here tomorrow to organize a Freedmen's State League for mutual aid and support.

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Scarcely a quarter of these late delegates to this, the first negro convention in a Southern State, can read and write. Some of them have hardly yet been allowed to realize that slavery has been overthrown--were were obliged to leave their homes in the night, are asking safe-conduct papers from the military authorities, and will even then quietly return home in the night. They are dressed in the cheapest of homespun, are awed by the very atmosphere of a city, speak a language that no Northern white man can understand. To them, as to all men by travel and association, there has come enlargement of view, enlargement of desire and aspiration, a new sense of freedom, and a new purpose to labor for their rights. To them and to all others there has also come, I am convinced, a new sense of the responsibilities of manhood, and a new sense of the manner in which they must meet these responsibilities. They came up "in the spirit of our God"--they - they have not forgotten God in all their labors; who shall doubt that he will bless this work of theirs? DIXON.

State Convention

Raleigh

NC

USA

1865-09-29

1865-09-29

Library of Congress

1865.NC-09.29.RALE