Renominate Benjamin Harrison: An Interview Given in Washington, D.C., on May 31, 1892
RENOMINATE BENJAMIN HARRISON: AN INTERVIEW GIVEN
IN WASHINGTON, D.C., ON 31 MAY 1892
Indianapolis (Ind.) , 1 June 1892.
As he had promised at the time of his retirement from public office the
previous fall, Douglass remained acutely interested in politics, particularly as
it affected black Americans. On the afternoon of 31 May 1892, a week before
the start of the Republican National Convention of 1892, an unidentified
correspondent of the Indianapolis interviewed Douglass at his resi-
dence in Washington, D.C. Douglass had just accompanied President Ben-
jamin Harrison to Rochester, New York, where the latter had presided at the
dedication of a Soldiers’ Monument on Memorial Day. The two men had
arrived back in Washington that morning via an overnight train from
Rochester. The correspondent sought out prominent blacks, includ-
ing Douglass, Blanche K. Bruce, Henry F. Cheatham, John R. Lynch, and W.
Calvin Chase, to learn their opinion regarding the likely renomination of
Harrison for a second term. Douglass attended the Republican convention in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, as a spectator and encouraged black delegates to
back Harrison. That fall, he campaigned for the Republican ticket in New
York and elsewhere. New York , 30, 31 May, 12 June 1892.
WASHINGTON, May 31.—There can no longer be any doubt, if any there
has been, as to who will have the support of the colored delegates in the
Minneapolis convention. It is the unqualified belief of the four great col-
ored leaders of the country located at present in Washington—the venera-
ble patriot, Fred Douglass; ex-United States Senator Blanche K. Bruce, of
Mississippi; Congressman Henry P. Cheatham, of North Carolina, and ex-
Congressman John R. Lynch, of Mississippi—that the colored delegates
will, as they have good cause to, support the President in the convention.
Your correspondent, this afternoon, called on Fred Douglass at his
home, which is upon a prominent elevation in Anacostia, near this city. Mr.
Douglass accompanied the President to Rochester and participated in the
Decoration-day exercises, just after an extended trip through the South. As
he talked he could look down over the city of Washington, with its one
hundred thousand colored people, who almost worship him. The breezes
from the peninsula of Maryland blew about his shoulders his long, white,
fluffy locks till, at times, he appeared the embodiment of all that could be
pure and wise in man. “I shall attend the Minneapolis convention,” said
Mr. Douglass, who has lost none of his vivacity of manner and vigor of
speech, “and will depart from here on Friday. I am on the wrong side of
seventy-five years of age, so that no one can say truthfully that I am
actuated by selfish motives; I could not accept a political position if it were
offered to me. I am going for the purpose of doing what I can to bring about
the renomination of President Harrison. He has done more for the colored
men in the way of offices than any President we ever had. He has done more
than any President to give to the colored man fair recognition in private life
and protect his home and family. To my mind we never had a greater
President. The position taken by President Harrison upon the election bill,
called by our enemies in the South the ‘force bill,’ should endear him to the
colored people as long as he lives, and they should revere his memory when
he is dead.1Douglass alludes to the support that President Benjamin Harrison gave to the Federal Elections Bill, which Congress had finally tabled in January 1891 after a year of intermittent debate. DeSantis, , 196, 210, 232; Welch, “Federal Elections Bill of 1890," 512. To the President the credit is due for creating the bill in the first
place, and then pushing it through the House and almost through the
Senate. His moral influence, as well as his official endorsement and as-
sistance, were behind the measure.”
“Do you think the colored people in the South very much desire the
adoption of that bill?” was asked.
The old white-haired colored patriot raised up from the rustic chair in
his elevated yard, as he said, his eyes flashing earnestly with every word:
“That bill meant protection to the lives of every colored voter in the South;
it meant as fair political and personal treatment as is given the colored or
white men at the North; it meant uniformity of the elective franchise.”
CANNOT BE STAMPEDED.
“Do you believe the colored delegations could be stampeded in the
convention for any other man?”
“I do not,” said Mr. Douglass. “The colored voter knows his friend,
and he recognizes principle. These colored delegates to the Minneapolis
convention will recall, as readily as I do, who it was, sixteen years ago, that
left the Speaker’s chair in the national House of Representatives, took the
floor, and spoke with all his power in opposition to the bill which proposed
to arrest kukluxism in the South and put a stop to the wholesale slaughter of
colored voters at the hands of white Democrats. They will recall who
fought and defeated upon the Republican side of the House the first ‘force
bill’ introduced in Congress;2In 1875, James G. Blaine, then speaker of the House of Representatives, together with other “moderate” Republicans, broke party ranks and blocked passage of an elections enforcement bill, authorizing federal intervention to ensure fair local and state elections. William Gillette, (Baton Rouge, 1979), 283-84, 289, 293. and they will recognize in him the same man
who permitted his name and moral influence to be used only a few months
ago to defeat the election bill of President Harrison. No, sir; the negro
delegates to Minneapolis cannot be taken away from Harrison by stam-
pede. "
“Can they be bought for another candidate?”
“Money is a powerful corrupting influence in politics,” said the pa-
triot, “but it will not tempt men of principle. If I miss not my estimate of
the negroes who will sit in the Minneapolis convention they will stand by
the man who has made for them the best President since Lincoln, and who,
in many respects, has favored colored men and women beyond the Lincoln
measure. I would be greatly disappointed to find any colored man in the
opposition.” Mr. Douglass then entered into a general discussion of the
strong points of the present administration, comparing them to those of
Washington, Lincoln and Grant,3George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Ulysses S. Grant. and pointing out the manifold reasons
why the colored men should stand as a wall for President Harrison. He said
the American and business policies of the present administration were not
only such as to make every citizen proud of his country, but would bring
prosperity in the future.
Congressman Cheatham, of North Carolina, is known throughout the
South as one of the foremost colored men and is a statesman of high type.
He said to-day: “I have no other expectation than that the colored delegates
will all support President Harrison at Minneapolis. Some of them have
voted for Senator Sherman in past conventions, but Mr. Sherman is not a
candidate, and if he were they would stand by the President, because he has
done more in every way for the colored man than any President we have
had since I have kept track of current politics. President Harrison has said
more kind words, endorsed more measures and had in view more good
generally for the negro than any President we have had, and he has given
more of them offices than any two Presidents.”
Ex-SENATOR BRUCE’S VIEWS.
Ex-Senator Bruce, of Mississippi, said: “If I had the time I could say
more for President Harrison than any two men whose names will come
before the convention. If the colored delegates do not support him as a
body in recognition of what he has done for them, I shall be sorely disap-
pointed.”
Ex-Congressman John R. Lynch, of Mississippi, said: “The President
will be renominated and the colored delegates will have the pleasure of
knowing that they stood by him in recognition of what he has done for the
race. There is every reason why the colored delegates should support the
President, and not one in the negative, the President has treated all alike;
that is why he has been such a good President for the colored people.”
Mr. W. Calvin Chase, a prominent colored man of this city and a
delegate to the Minneapolis convention from the District of Columbia, said
this evening in an interview: “I have no entanglements. I will say, though,
that Harrison has endeared himself to the hearts of the colored people of
this country, and will receive their unanimous support. He won us by his
ringing advocacy of the federal election bill and by his courageous utter-
ances whenever our rights were being discussed. Then he has given us
more official recognition than any other occupant of the executive man-
sion. Under his administration the colored man has received a fair share of
material interest in the machinery of the government. At all times has he
been considerate. and now that he is once more before the people we are
going to show our gratitude.
“He cannot get one-half of the colored vote; of course, you understand
that. I am for the nominee, whoever he may be, but I don’t mind stating it to
be my firm conviction that the colored vote will split if Blaine is chosen. He
is held responsible for Republican defeat in the last congressional elec-
tions. He opposed the McKinley bill and Speaker Reed, and his comments
were used with telling effect by the Democratic orators. We have not
forgotten that Blaine threw all his might against what was called the ‘force
bill’ in two memorable fights. Blaine may be nominated, but he can never
get the colored vote.”