In 1900, President William McKinley gave "reverent thanks to God" for the growth of a Nation that safeguarded the human rights of all people. It had been 30 years since the fifteenth amendment granted African American men the right to vote to "proclaim larger freedom and more extended citizenship" and the nation was made stronger by it. In the first two years after the fifteenth amendment was passed, 7 black men all Republican (McKinley’s party) were elected to Congress. McKinley expressed his view that despite the explosion of its population, and despite the expansion of citizenship, America remained "adhered to its foundation principles" and its "[e]ducation, religion, and morality have kept pace with our advancement in other directions". America had shed its slave-holding past and was emerging as a nation dedicated to human rights. Unfortunately, 1897 would see the last black man elected to Congress for another 30 years.
Joseph Hayne Rainey and Hiram Rhodes Revels became the first two African American to serve in Congress. Both men were elected in 1879 as Republicans, the party of Abraham Lincoln's emancipation. Rainey, born into slavery in South Carolina was elected to represent South Carolina's 1st district and became the first black person to serve in the United States House of Representatives. Rhodes, born free in North Carolina was elected as U.S. Senator to represent Mississippi. Senator Rhodes had helped organize two regiments of United States Colored Troops during the Civil War and served as Chaplain. In 1871, Rainey and Rhodes were joined by five more black men in Congress, all Republicans and all from the South. Congressman Benjamin Sterling Turner born into slavery in Halifax County, North Carolina was elected to represent Alabama's first district. In that same year, Robert C. De Large a man of mixed race was elected to represent South Carolina's second district. Also elected that year was Josiah T. Walls who served three years in Congress representing Florida at-large. Josiah went on to serve four terms in the Florida State Senate. Joining them was Congressman Jefferson Franklin Long who was elected to represent Georgia's fourth district in 1871 and became the first African American to speak on the floor of the US House. Rounding off the team, was Robert Brown Elliot, an Englishman born in Liverpool England. Elliot arrived in South Carolina in 1867 and was elected to represent South Carolina's 3rd district. In total, from 1870 until 1887 a total of 17 black men served in the U.S. Congress. Eight of these men were born into slavery and 13 were of mixed-race heritage.
At the turn of the century, in President McKinley's State of the Union Address, he wrote to Congress reminding them to give "reverent thanks to God" for not only preserving our nation but extending the blessings of freedom and citizenship. The nation had endured four years of horrendous civil war, but the years following was proof that America was a nation of civil rights. On February 25, 1870, when Senator Hiram Revels was sworn in to the U.S. Senate the Atlanta Constitution reported that “the crowded galleries rose almost en masse, and each particular neck was stretched to its uttermost to get a view. A curious crowd (colored and white) rushed into the Senate chamber and gazed at the colored senator, some of them congratulating him. A very respectable looking, well dressed company of colored men and women then came up and took Revels captive, and bore him off in glee and triumph.” Running for office and holding office for Revels and the other courageous black men who followed him was not easy. They had to brave elections that were often spoiled by fraud and marred by violence, but they did not give up. In Congress, they were often marginalized, yet persevered and advocated for the newest citizens of the United States. When Congressman Jefferson Franklin Long was given an opportunity to speak on the U.S. House floor, he warned Congress about allowing unrepentant Confederates a return to Congress. Long pointed out that many of them still belonged to secret societies like the Ku Klux Klan, which marginalized and intimidated black citizens. Long warned against their return, "I venture to prophesy you will again have trouble from the very same men who gave you trouble before". While many newspapers of the North commended his oratory skills, those of the South described his speech as a nefarious attempt to disenfranchise white voters.
In 1800 the population was just over 5 million persons in 16 dates. By 1900 it was more than 76 million in 45 states covering more than 3.8 million square miles. Despite this expansion in size, education, religion and morality have kept pace with all other advances and the nation had remained adhered to its original principles. President McKinley in his address made no specific mention of the 15th amendment which gave voting rights to African Americans, but it can be inferred from his words. When McKinley spoke of our Constitution with a few amendments that expended freedom and citizenship, there is little doubt that he was speaking of the 15th amendment. When McKinley spoke of "dealing with our new peoples", he likely meant to include new black citizens. When the 15th amendment was first introduced there were talk among many in the South that it would destroy the morality, education and religion of our nation. This was the message spread by those secret societies like the Ku Klux Kan that Congressman Long warned about. The year was now 1900, and none of those fears had materialized. With God's guidance, “Popular government" as McKinley called it ("We the People") had proved over the 124 years of trial, that it was not only stable and secure but the "best safeguard to human rights". These black men who served in Congress and in President McKinley’s own party were proof that America was a bastion of freedom for all, regardless of race. For that McKinley urged Congress and the entire nation to give "reverent thanks to God", for we are truly a blessed nation.
"At the outgoing of the old and the incoming of the new century you begin the last session of the Fifty-sixth Congress with evidences on every hand of individual and national prosperity and with proof of the growing strength and increasing power for good of Republican institutions. Your countrymen will join with you in felicitation that American liberty is more firmly established than ever before, and that love for it and the determination to preserve it are more universal than at any former period of our history.
The Republic was never so strong, because never so strongly entrenched in the hearts of the people as now. The Constitution, with few amendments, exists as it left the hands of its authors. The additions which have been made to it proclaim larger freedom and more extended citizenship. Popular government has demonstrated in its one hundred and twenty-four years of trial here its stability and security, and its efficiency as the best instrument of national development and the best safeguard to human rights.
When the Sixth Congress assembled in November, 1800, the population of the United States was 5,308,483.It is now 76,304,799. Then we had sixteen States. Now we have forty-five. Then our territory consisted Of 909,050 square miles. It is now 3,846,595 square miles. Education, religion, and morality have kept pace with our advancement in other directions, and while extending its power the Government has adhered to its foundation principles and abated none of them in dealing with our new peoples and possessions. A nation so preserved and blessed gives reverent thanks to God and invokes His guidance and the continuance of His care and favor."Unfortunately, the next 30 years would see a halt in the elevation of black men to Congress. In 1897, the same year that President William McKinley was elected, George Henry White became the last black man elected to Congress for the next 30 years. Congressman White was an attorney, born in Rosendale North Carolina to Wiley Franklin White a free person of color. White graduated from Howard University in 1877 and was hired as a principal at a North Carolina school. Howard continued to study law and was admitted to the North Carolina bar in 1879.
References
Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2019). Fourth Annual Message | The American Presidency Project. [online] Available at: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/fourth-annual-message-14 [Accessed 28 Nov. 2019].“The Negro United States Senator,”. (1870). Atlanta Constitution, (3 March 1870).
History.house.gov. (2019). LONG, Jefferson Franklin | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives. [online] Available at: https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/17115 [Accessed 28 Nov. 2019].
History.house.gov. (2019). The Fifteenth Amendment in Flesh and Blood: The Symbolic Generation of Black Americans in Congress, 1870–1887 | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives. [online] Available at: https://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/BAIC/Historical-Essays/Fifteenth-Amendment/Introduction/ [Accessed 28 Nov. 2019].
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