William Mahone, and the army of federal politicians, State and National.

Dr. J. E. Rankin draws this pen picture of Langston:

"With less massive movement of mind and dignity of address than the great orator Douglass, for platform speech he is keener and more magnetic. In person he is little above the medium stature, slender and straight as an arrow. For suavity and grace of person he might be taken for a Frenchman, and sometimes as you look at his features you think he may be of Spanish or Italian descent. But to-day he makes his boast that he has some of the best blood of the three races, só historic in the great events of the continent: the Indian, the Negro, and the AngloSaxon."

XXVII

BLANCHE KELSO BRUCE

B. K. BRUCE was the most successful political leader that the American Negro has yet produced. Though born a slave in Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia, March 1, 1841, he rose to an official position in the legislative and executive service of the United States next below that of Vice President and Cabinet Officer. Branch Bruce was the name given him in childhood, but as he approached manhood he changed it to Blanche Kelso. In this respect he was not unlike Booker Washington, Frederick Douglass and Grover Cleveland.

The family were taken first to Mississippi, thence to Brunswick, Mo. In this town when quite a small boy he was a printer's devil. All his odd moments were spent in reading books and newspapers. Thus, like many another man who has become eminent, he laid the foundation of a good English education.

Speaking of Mr. Bruce's early attempts to educate himself, his friend, Mr. George C. Smith, to whom the author is indebted for much data not otherwise obtainable, says: "It was not until '83 that I got an insight into how he acquired the rudiments of an education while yet a slave. Strange I had never asked him to tell me. At the time referred to I spent an evening with Congressman Cosgrove, of Missouri, at Willard's Hotel in Washington, who told me much of Mr. Bruce's boyhood. He said that many years before the war he (Cosgrove) was learning the printer's trade at Brunswick, Mo., and that Mr. Bruce was the 'devil' on the press, and whenever he was wanted, he was always found with his head buried in a book or a newspaper,

that it was a difficult job to keep him at work. Having learned the trade of printer he (Cosgrove) left Brunswick and did not return until '82-nearly thirty years thereafter-when he thought he would visit the printer's office, where he found the same old man publishing the same little sheet, and said almost the first question he asked, was, 'Where is that colored boy-the "devil"? When the old man said, 'why, have you never seen or heard of him since?' and taking from his pocket a dollar bill, the old man pointed to the lower left-hand corner to the name 'B. K. Bruce, Register' and said: 'Not only is he the Register of the United States Treasury, and no bonds or paper money issued by this great government is valid without his name, but he has become a United States Senator and to-day stands as not only the recognized leader of his race, but one of the great men of this nation. Even you, Mr. Cosgrove, cannot get to Washington, to be sworn in, unless you have a "pass" from this "devil" of ante-bellum days." "

During the early days of the Civil War he escaped to Lawrence, Kansas, and opened there the first school for colored children. In 1864 the first school for colored children in Missouri was taught by him at Hannibal. In 1866, he entered Oberlin where he remained only one year. The next year found him at St. Louis, an employé on the Steamer Columbia, which plied between St. Louis and Council Bluffs, Iowa.

The political reconstruction of the States lately in rebellion having been fairly begun, Mr. Bruce left the steamboat service, went prospecting, first to Arkansas, thence to Tennessee, finally remaining in Mississippi. Shortly afterwards he was appointed by Military Governor General Adelbert Ames, conductor of elections for Tallahatchie County. On the assembling of the legislature in the winter of '69-'70, Mr. Bruce appeared at Jackson as a candidate for sergeant-at-arms in the senate and was elected, serving during the entire session. In 1871 he was appointed by Governor Alcorn as assessor of Bolivar County, and in the

same year was elected sheriff and tax collector. He took charge in January, 1872. He was next appointed member of the levee board and cotton tax collector. These offices required a bond of $200,000, which was made in the county and principally by Democrats who had confidence in his integrity and business capacity.

He was also appointed by the State Board of Education the county superintendent of the schools in Bolivar County.

All these offices were discharged with marked efficiency. His next step upward, to the United States Senate, was a prodigious His election to it was no accident, but the outcome of a campaign planned three years before and begun in the United States Senate chamber itself.

one.

While returning from the National Republican Convention to which they were both delegates, James Hill, the foremost Negro leader of the State, and Mr. Bruce visited Washington. Among other places was the Capitol where they strolled in the Senate, sought and sat in the seats of Alcorn and Ames.

"How would you like to occupy that seat?" said Hill to Bruce.

"What do you mean?" said Bruce.

"Occupy it as Senator from the State of Mississippi," was Hill's answer.

"It is out of the question," was Bruce's reply.

"I can and will put you there; no one can defeat you," added Hill with vigor.

Hiram R. Revels had been elected to the United States Senate for an unexpired term which had lapsed ten years before by the resignation of Jefferson Davis to become president of the Southern Confederacy. In popular esteem Revels had not proven a success. He had incurred the displeasure of Senator Sumner because of a certain vote and his reëlection was out of the question. Mr. Bruce, on the other hand, had attracted increasing attention because of his businesslike methods of

transacting public affairs and his executive ability. The Floreyville Star, a weekly published in Bolivar County made sentiment for the election of a colored Senator for the full term of six years, but named no candidate, though its incidental references to Mr. Bruce were that he was too valuable a man to be spared from the county and also that he could not be induced to accept. At the time of the election of Revels some of the colored members of the legislature thought that they should have had the full term of six years instead of the short one. Governor Ames who had left the Senate and been elected governor mainly to promote his chance for the term beginning March 4, 1875, announced his candidacy; but Hill was equal to the occasion and defied the governor. When the legislature met, the white and the colored Republicans held first, separate, then joint caucuses for the senatorial nomination. Several colored men aspired for the honor, and the white Republicans sought to divide the colored forces by the candidacy of one or more of these aspirants, but 59 of the 60 colored members stood firm. Bruce was nominated and was elected. Hill's pledge made in the United States Senate Chamber three years before was redeemed. The Floreyville Star ceased to shine and its proprietor and editor-in-chief took his seat as the first and only Negro in the United States Senate to serve a full term of six years. His term ended with the inauguration of James A. Garfield as President.

A very interesting incident connected with Mr. Bruce's induction into office is told in the Senator's own language.

"When I came up to the Senate I knew no one except Senator Alcorn who was my colleague. When the names of the new Senators were called out for them to go up and take the oath, all the others except myself were escorted by their colleagues. Mr. Alcorn made no motion to escort me, but was buried behind a newspaper, and I concluded I would go it alone. I had got about half-way up the aisle when a tall gentleman stepped up and said: