David A. Straker to Frederick Douglass, March 22, 1877

DAVID A. STRAKER^{1David Augustus Straker (1842–1908) was a black educator, lawyer, judge, author, and orator. Straker spent the first twenty-six years of his life in his home country of Barbados, where he became a teacher in the capital, Bridgetown. In 1868, Straker moved to Kentucky to teach in a freedmen’s school, but soon decided to take up law and enrolled in Howard University’s School of Law in 1869. Following law school, Straker was appointed to a position in the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where he worked for four years. In November 1870, Straker married Annie Carey, a former Howard student, and they settled in Orangeburg, South Carolina. He was active in the Republican party and became a state representative in 1876. Straker successfully ran for reelection in 1878 and 1880, but was denied a seat by the Democratic majority. In protest, Straker and his law partner, the former South Carolina congressman Robert Brown Elliott, traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with President James A. Garfield to discuss discrimination and voter intimidation by South Carolina Democrats. In 1882, Straker became the dean of the Allen University School of Law, where he served until 1886. In 1887, Straker and his wife relocated to Detroit, where he continued to practice law and was the first African American to appear before the Michigan Supreme Court. He remained an ardent Republican and attended the 1888 Republican National Convention as Michigan’s representative. During his lifetime he wrote opinion pieces for newspapers, including Douglass’s New National Era, and gave lectures throughout the North and South. He authored multiple books, including The New South Investigated (1888), Reflections on the Life and Times of Toussaint L’Overture (1886), and Negro Suffrage in the South (1906). Straker founded the National Federation of Colored Men of the United States, as well as his own newspaper, the Detroit Advocate, in 1901. W. Lewis Burke, All for Civil Rights: African American Lawyers in South Carolina, 1868–1968 (Athens, Ga., 2017), 91–92, 107–111; Dyson, Howard University, 233–34; Foner, Freedom’s Lawmakers, 205–06; Glenn O. Phillips, “The Response of a West Indian Activist: D. A. Straker, 1842–1908,” JNH, 66: 128–39 (Summer 1981); DANB, 574–76.} TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Orangeburg[,] S.C. 22 March 1877[.]

U.S. MARSHAL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

HON FREDERICK DOUGLASS

HON’BLE & ESTEEMED SIR.

From the bottom of my heart I congratulate you on the merited appreciation of you, as shown by President Hayes in nominating you, one of the

highest representatives of the colored race, for the high and distinguished position of U.S. Marshal of the District of Columbia, also by the U.S. Senate in the confirmation of said nomination. God grant you health, strength and a preservation of that ability which has hitherto distinguished you in all vocations. I am glad to learn of the nomination of John W. Langston Esq to a position which I know he is well qualified for and will fill with ability.^{2In 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed John M. Langston U.S. minister plenipotentiary to Haiti, a position he held until 1885. Foner, Freedom’s Lawmakers, 128.} There are other colored men of eminent ability who like yourself & Mr Langston have fought for the preservation of the Union, & the Republican Party as well as their freedom, who I hope in due course of time the President will show his appreciation of their services & loyalty to the Republican Party and their ability to serve the party <by appointing them to> in some high position. I will instance the Hon R. B. Elliott;^{3Robert Brown Elliott (1842–84) was a South Carolina lawyer, newspaper editor, and politician. Elliott claimed to have been born in Boston and to have lived in Jamaica and then in England, where he supposedly graduated from Eton in 1852. The claims of his birth and education, however, have not been corroborated by primary-source evidence. In all likelihood, he was born and educated in Liverpool, England, arrived in Boston in 1867, and moved to South Carolina a few months later. There, he became the associate editor of the South Carolina Leader, a black Republican newspaper. A year later, he established a law practice with David Straker and became active in politics. His political aspirations may account for his complicated account of his birth and education, since he may not have been a legal citizen when he was elected to the South Carolina House in 1868. In 1870, Elliott was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and served until 1874, when he resigned in order to return to South Carolina and fight against corruption in the state’s government. He returned to the state house in 1874 and was its Speaker until 1876. That same year, Elliott successfully campaigned to become the state’s attorney general, but was forced out by Democrats in 1877 when President Hayes ended Reconstruction. Elliott became a special treasury agent and in 1881 was transferred to New Orleans, where he was relieved of his position the following year. He attempted to practice law in that state, but was unsuccessful and died from malaria in 1884, nearly penniless. Maurine Christopher, Black Americans in Congress (New York, 1976), 69–77; Peggy Lamson, The Glorious Failure: Black Congressman Robert Brown Elliott and the Reconstruction in South Carolina (New York, 1973), 22–33; Foner, Freedom’s Lawmakers, 69–70; DANB, 210–11.} and there are others whose names I must omit at present but stand ready and willing to mention at some future time. We are in a fearful condition in S. C. Republicanism is threatened with annihilation. We have been or are about to be cheated out of our legally elected Governor. Daniel H. Chamberlain,^{4Daniel Henry Chamberlain (1835–1907) was born in West Brookfield, Massachusetts, the ninth of ten children. He was educated at Yale University and graduated in 1862. He then entered Harvard Law School, leaving in 1863 to join the army. He received a lieutenant’s commission with the Fifth Massachusetts Calvary, a volunteer black regiment. Following the war, Chamberlain moved to South Carolina to practice law, and became involved in politics. He was the state’s attorney general (1868–72) and was elected governor in 1874 with the support of fellow white Republicans as well as prominent African American South Carolinians, including Congressman Robert Brown Elliott. Although Chamberlain won the popular vote during the 1876 gubernatorial campaign, his opponent, the Democrat Wade Hampton III, also claimed victory. Following a six-month legal battle, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled in Hampton’s favor. The appointment of Hampton was part of the Compromise of 1877, which settled the disputed 1876 presidential election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden in Hayes’s favor, with Hayes promising Democrats that he would end Reconstruction and remove federal troops from the South. Following his defeat, Chamberlain left political office and moved to New York, where he practiced law. He became a professor at Cornell University in 1883, teaching constitutional law until 1897. He traveled in Europe extensively and eventually settled in Virginia, where he lived the remainder of his life. Walter Allen, Governor Chamberlain’s Administration in South Carolina: A Chapter of Reconstruction in the Southern States (New York, 1888), 524–26; James Green, Personal Recollections of Daniel Henry Chamberlain (Worcester, Mass., 1908); ANB (online).} who received a majority of all the legal votes cast at the late election. He did not receive a majority of all the votes cast as did Genl Wade Hampton^{5Wade Hampton III (1818–1902) was born in Charleston, South Carolina, to a wealthy planter family. He graduated from South Carolina College in 1836. In 1855, his father passed ownership of his plantation and 250 slaves to Hampton and his brother Christopher. Hampton entered political life in 1852 when he became a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives. Elected a state senator in 1858, Hampton, although initially against secession, joined the Confederate army, eventually reaching the rank of lieutenant general. Following the war, Hampton ran against Governor Daniel Henry Chamberlain in the 1876 gubernatorial race. The election was marred by violence from a radical group of white men known as the Red Shirts, who used intimidation and even murder to suppress black voters. While Hampton did not openly support the Red Shirts, he benefited from their actions. Both Hampton and Chamberlain claimed victory, and for six months there were two legislatures in the state. The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled in Hampton’s favor, and the state was returned to Democratic control for the first time since the Civil War. Hampton was reelected to a second term in 1878 but resigned following his election to the U.S. Senate in 1879, where he served two terms. He was appointed U.S. railroad commissioner by President Grover Cleveland in 1893, an appointment he held until 1897. He died in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1902. Robert Ackerman, Wade Hampton III (Columbia, S.C., 2007), 10–11, 16, 191–203, ANB (online).} but who will presume to say that there has not always been the distinction made as justifying the claims of a candidate to office between the vote cast and the legal votes as cast, else whence come persons contesting the claims of their opponents to office. The promise of peace by the Democrats is a promise to the ear to be broken to the heart Mark me It is an Ignis-fatuus^{6Latin for “foolish fire,” it refers to a will-o’-the-wisp, or something deceptive or deluding.} misleading the Republicans down a precipice from which they can never again arise. I do not question the good will of President Hayes towards us as a race. I admire, agree with, and am willing to uphold his hands, in reconciling the conflict between the races in the south and making our motto E pluribus Unum^{7Latin for “Out of many, one.” The phrase was added to the Great Seal of the United States, which is used to authenticate important documents issued by the federal government. Richard S. Patterson and Dougall Richardson, The Eagle and the Shield: A History of the Great Seal of the United States (Washington, D.C., 1978), 34–35.} not merely words but a veritable fact: but let him be certain that there is mutality in the contract.

Whatever the purpose of President Hayes may be to the contrary if he fail to recognize D. H. Chamberlain as Governor of So. Car. & Packard^{8Stephen Bennett Packard (1839–1922) was born in Auburn, Maine, and educated at Westbrook Seminary. After studying law, he enlisted in the U.S. Army’s Twelfth Maine Infantry in 1861, achieving the rank of captain. Following the war, he moved to Louisiana and practiced law. In 1869, Packard was appointed U.S. marshal for the state by President Ulysses S. Grant. During the 1876 gubernatorial election, Packard claimed victory against his Democratic opponent, Francis T. Nicholls, despite Nicholls’s claim of victory. Both men were sworn in on inauguration day, and the state maintained two legislatures until President Hayes sent a commission to the state to remove Packard from office. Hayes’s support of Nicholls was part of the Compromise of 1877, which gave Hayes victory over Samuel J. Tilden in the disputed presidential election of 1876. Packard left Louisiana shortly thereafter and was appointed consul at Liverpool, England, where he remained until he moved to Iowa and became a livestock breeder. He served as a member of the Iowa State Board of Agriculture from 1901 to 1909, when he moved to Seattle, Washington. Taylor, Louisiana Reconstructed, 489–503; “Stephen B. Packard,” Annals of Iowa, 14: 234–35 (1924).} Governor of Louisiania he transfers the Republican Party into the hands of the Democrats as sure as a God exists. Shall this great party be thus destroyed? Some people say a new party must arise. why? are any of the fundamental principles of the Republican Party as it existed 20 years ago destroyed today? Cannot a party be reformed in its practices without its principles being destroyed? I will be just & state that I know in this state many Democrats who honestly desire peace reconciliation and will do justice to the colored race but they are themselves ostracised by their own

Party in its majority & cannot do the good they would. A few new men guarantee peace, but the masses only can await it. Have they yet spoken in South Carolina or Louisiania? Ought not the President to hear from the whole people of these states, through themselves & not through Senator Gordon. Is it to be believed that Senator Gordon^{9John Brown Gordon (1832–1904) attended Pleasant Green Academy and the University of Georgia, where he excelled in oratory and literature; however, he left during his senior year and never completed a degree. In 1854, Gordon moved to Atlanta and studied law, but this venture proved unsuccessful. He instead entered journalism and worked with his father in the coal mining industry, where he built his fortune. Gordon was a proponent of secession and joined the Confederate army as a captain, eventually rising to the rank of general. Following the war, he entered politics, unsuccessfully running for governor in 1868. In 1873, Gordon was elected U.S. senator from Georgia and fought to restore home rule and alleviate restrictions on the South imposed by Reconstruction policies. He served until 1880, when he left unexpectedly to work for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. Gordon returned to politics in 1886 when he became governor of Georgia. Following his term, he returned to the U.S. Senate in 1891 and served two additional terms. On his retirement from politics in 1889, Gordon served as commander in chief of the United Confederate Veterans (1889–1904). He was also a prominent member of the Ku Klux Klan. Eckert, John Brown Gordon, 6–15; Howard Dorgan, “A Case Study in Reconciliation: General John B. Gordon and ‘The Last Days of the Confederacy,’ ” Quarterly Journal of Speech, 60: 83 (1974); ANB (online).} of Ga. & M. C. Butler^{10Matthew Calbraith Butler (1836–1909) was a former Confederate major general, politician, and lawyer who came from a long line of politicians: his father, William Butler, Jr., was a congressman; his uncle, Andrew Butler, was a U.S. senator; and another uncle, Pierce Mason Butler, was governor of South Carolina. Butler attended South Carolina College but left in 1856, two years shy of graduation. He continued his legal studies under James P. Carroll, and was admitted to the bar one year later. Butler entered politics early, successfully winning a seat in South Carolina’s House of Representatives in 1860, but left once the state seceded. In 1866, he was again elected to the state House of Representatives. Following the end of Reconstruction, Butler won three terms in the U.S. Senate, serving until 1895. He was a moderate conservative who supported the black emigration movement. Following his retirement from politics, he practiced law in Washington, D.C., until becoming a major in the Spanish-American War. Following the war, he returned to Edgefield, South Carolina, where he had spent his youth, and resumed his law practice. He spent a brief amount of time in Mexico while working for a mining company, but ultimately returned to the Washington, D.C., area, where he lived until his death. Samuel J. Martin, Southern Hero: Matthew Calbraith Butler, Confederate General, Hampton Red Shirt, and U.S. Senator (Mechanicsburg, Penn., 2001), 1–7; BDUSC (online); ANB (online).} of So. Car. desire peace more than the victory of their party in the states in question. It is said that taxation will settle the vexed question. If the contending factions are left to themselves so as to see if might can overcome right the inevitable result will be two governments in La & So. Ca. In this state every Republican who voted the Republican ticket will pay his tax to Chamberlain & the Democrats will do the same to Hampton. Did the framers of the Constitution intend such a state of things when they said “To every state shall be secured a Republican form of Government.”^{11Straker paraphrases article IV, section 9, of the U.S. Constitution: “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened), against domestic Violence.”} Pardon this lengthy letter I only desire to express my views to you and if you think they will conduce to good you may give them such publication as you think. I am not anxious nor desirous to appear in print but I do not fear my views being as generally known as possible.

Since writing the above a Hampton trial Justice has shot a Negro in making an arrest which his constable ought to have made.

Very truly Yours

D. A. STRAKER

ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 3, frames 61–63L, FD Papers, DLC.

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