History of the Negro Race in America Volume II Part 88

Tanner, D.D., Editor; Rev. Theo. Gould, Publisher; circulation, G; office, 631 Pine Street.

SOUTH CAROLINA.

CHARLESTON.--_The New Era_; Wm. Holloway, Business Manager; $1.50 per year; Sat.u.r.days; democratic; 196 Meeting Street.

CHARLESTON.--_The Palmetto Press_; Robert L. Smith, Editor; $1.50 per year; Sat.u.r.days.

TENNESSEE.

NASHVILLE.--_Knights of Wise Men_; J. L. Brown, Editor; office. No. 5 Cherry Street.

CHATTANOOGA.--_The Enterprise_; Rev. D. W. Hays.

TEXAS.

AUSTIN.--_The Austin Citizen_; J. J. Hamilton & Co.

DALLAS.--_The Baptist Journal_; S. H. Smothers, Editor; A. R. Greggs, Publisher.

DALLAS.--_Christian Preacher_; C. M. Wilmeth.

MARSHALL.--_The Christian Advocate_; M. F. Jamison.

GALVESTON.--_Spectator_; Richard Nelson, Editor; $1.50 per year.

PALESTINE.--_Colored American Journal_; monthly; C. W. Porter, Editor.

VIRGINIA.

RICHMOND.--_Virginia Star_; Sat.u.r.days; four pages; size, 20 x 26; subscription, $2.00; established, 1876; R. M. Green, M.D., O. M.

Stewart, and P. H. Woolfolk, Editors and Publishers; circulation, K.

RICHMOND.--_Industrial Herald_; John Oliver, Editor; $1.00 per year.

PETERSBURGH.--_The Lancet_; Geo. F. Bragg, Jr., Manager; $1.50 per year; Sat.u.r.days.

WEST VIRGINIA.

WHEELING.--_The Weekly Times_; Welcome, Buckner, & Co., Publishers; Geo. W. Welcome, Editor; 8 pages; $1.00 per annum.

NEGROES IN NORTHERN COLLEGES.

In response to a circular sent out, seventy Northern Colleges sent information; and in them are at present one hundred and sixty-nine Colored students. The exact number of graduates cannot be ascertained, as these colleges do not keep a record of the nationality of their students.

FOOTNOTES:

[145] Correspondence of American Revolution, vol. iii. p. 547.

CHAPTER XXIII.

HENRY HIGHLAND GARNET, D.D.

The career of this man, who died at Monrovia, Liberia, Feb. 14, 1882, where he was the Minister of the United States, was extraordinary.

Grandson of a native African, brought over in a slave-trader, himself born a slave, he was brought to Pennsylvania by his father, when he fled from slavery in 1824. Next we find him, at the age of seventeen, ridiculed for studying Greek and Latin; then mobbed in a New Hamps.h.i.+re seminary; then dragged from a street car in Utica; then studying theology with Dr. Beman in Troy, N. Y. Soon he was settled as a minister; afterward he travelled in Great Britain and on the Continent of Europe, and was sent by a Scottish Society as Presbyterian missionary to Jamaica, West Indies. He returned to New York, and was long the pastor of the s.h.i.+loh Presbyterian Church; his house escaping the riots in 1863 "by the foresight of his daughter, who wrenched off the door plate." He was the first Colored man who ever spoke in public in the Capitol at Was.h.i.+ngton, having preached there Sunday, Feb. 12, 1865. In 1881 he was appointed Minister to Liberia. Dr. Garnet was equal in ability to Frederick Dougla.s.s, and greatly his superior in learning, especially excelling in logic and terse statement. We heard him make a speech in 1865, which in force of reasoning, purity of language, and propriety of utterance, was not unworthy of comparison with a sermon of Bishop Thomson, or an address of George William Curtis. As he was "a full-blooded Negro," he was a standing and unanswerable proof that the race is capable of all that has distinguished MAN. How much of history and progress could be crowded in a memorial inscription for him! It might be something like this: Born a slave in the country to which his grandfather was stolen away, he competed, under the greatest disadvantages, with white men for the prizes of life; attaining the highest intellectual culture, and a corresponding moral elevation, his career commanded universal respect in Europe and America, wherever he was known. He died the Minister of the United States to a civilized nation in the land whence his barbaric ancestors were stolen. To G.o.d, who "hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation" (Acts xvii: 26), be the glory. "How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!"

EBENEZER D. Ba.s.sETT.

One of the ablest diplomats the Negro race has produced is the Honorable Ebenezer D. Ba.s.sett, for nearly nine years the Resident Minister and Consul-General from the United States to Hayti. He was born and educated in the State of Connecticut, and for many years was the successful Princ.i.p.al of the Inst.i.tute for Colored Youth at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a cla.s.sical scholar and for proficiency in the use of modern languages he has few equals among his race.

Returning to this country, after years of honorable service abroad, he was promoted by the Haytian Government to the position of Consul at New York City, and at present is serving the Republic of Hayti. As an evidence of the high esteem in which he was held as an officer the following doc.u.ments attest:

(COPY.)

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, } WAs.h.i.+NGTON, October 5, 1877. }

EBENEZER D. Ba.s.sETT, Esquire, etc., etc., etc.

SIR: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 529, of the 23d August last, tendering your resignation of the office of Minister Resident and Consul-General of the United States to Hayti, and to inform you that it is accepted.

I cannot allow this opportunity to pa.s.s without expressing to you the appreciation of the Department of the very satisfactory manner in which you have discharged the duties of the mission at Port au Prince during your term of office. This commendation of your services is the more especially merited, because at various times your duties have been of such a delicate nature as to have required the exercise of much tact and discretion.

I enclose herewith a letter addressed by the President of the United States to the President of Hayti, announcing your retirement from the mission at Port au Prince, together with an office copy of the same. You will transmit the latter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and make arrangements for the delivery of the original to the President when your successor shall present his credentials.

I am, sir, your obedient servant, (Signed.) F. W. SEWARD, _Acting Secretary_.

(TRANSLATION.)

BOISROND Ca.n.a.l, _President of the Republic of Hayti_, _To His Excellency the President of the United States of America_.

GREAT AND GOOD FRIEND: Mr. Ebenezer D. Ba.s.sett, who has resided here in the capacity of Minister of the United States, has placed in my hands the letter by which your Excellency has brought his mission to an end.

In taking leave of me in conformity with the wishes of your Excellency, he has renewed the a.s.surance of the friendly sentiments which so happily exist on the part of the Government and the people of the United States toward the Government and the people of the Republic of Hayti.

I have not failed to request him to transmit to your Excellency, the expression of my great desire to maintain always the relations of the two Countries upon the footing of that cordial understanding.

It is for me a pleasing duty to acknowledge fully to your Excellency, the zeal and the intelligence with which Mr. Ba.s.sett has fulfilled here the high and delicate functions that had been entrusted to him.

I have, therefore, been happy to be able to testify to him publicly before his departure, in the name of my fellow-citizens, the esteem and sincere affection which his talents, his character, his private and public conduct have won for him, as well as the particular sentiments of friends.h.i.+p and grat.i.tude I personally entertain for him.