The Government Peculiarities
April 9, 1898
Summary
The Planet finds issue with President McKinley’s enthusiasm for the situation in Cuba, since he has done next to nothing to support the African American population in the face of extremely violent attacks from their white neighbors.
Transcription
This is a peculiar government in which we live. It acts at times in a way that is as thoroughly inconsistent as it is absurd.
About a quarter of a century ago, it permitted a body of men, with the apparent sanction of itself to establish throughout the country offices for the saving of colored people’s money.
This concern was known as the Freedmen’s Savings Bank. Thousands of dollars were collected and squandered, and finally the bank failed.
The confiding public, (the colored brother) was duped. The United States Government promptly disclaimed all responsibility for the losses, but an agent of the government was designated to wind up the affairs of the concern.
It only required something over one million dollars to pay up the robbed depositors in full. The moral responsibility of this great nation was not denied, while its technical irresponsibility was freely admitted.
But one president, so far as we are informed has had the temerity and the nerve to deal with the question squarely in his message, and recommended in unmistakable language the appropriation asked for. That man was Grover Cleveland, a democrat greater than his party and at present living in well-earned retirement within the beautiful confines of the city of Princeton, N. J.
Isaac H. Lofton. Colored, was appointed postmaster of Hogansville, Ga.
On a dark night, a band of cowardly assassins fired, wounding him in the shoulder, and he narrowly escaped with his life.
The patrons of the office set up a boycott of the office to reduce his salary and to starving him out.
Mr. Loftine refused to be relieved or starved out, and today with an intrepidity and bravery, which is marvelous, he continues to do business “as the same old stand.” His would be murderers have not been apprehended. No company of soldier have been ordered from the far North-west to protect him. No appropriation has been either recommended or made in behalf of his suffering family or himself. ON this question, the great government, form the president of the United States to Congress is as silent as the grave.
Twenty-five thousand dollars would be a small sum in compensation for the injury which he has received. But he toils on, and hopes for the best.
Postmaster T. J. Baker, colored, was fired upon by a white mob. He was instantly killed.
The babe at its mother’s breast had its brains bespattered over the person of that saintly form who had so often lulled it to sleep and three of the other children were horribly wounded. Rewards were offered by the national government for the murderers and the fiends who perpetuated the outrage laughed.
Up to this writing, President McKinley had made no recommendation for an appropriation of either twenty-five or fifty thousand dollars for the family of this murdered official.
Condolences and empty expressions abound, but material help is not offered and around and about Washington all talk of the relief of this man’s family has been suspended.
When a German half-breed citizen in Haiti was imprisoned by the latter government for thirty days and indemnity of twenty0-five thousand dollars in gold was demanded by the German Consul General and enforced of the mouth of a cannon.
When Consul-General Lee reported that American citizens in Cuba were suffering Congress voted at once an appropriation of fifty thousand dollars. This was so much that their Consul-General could not find a way to spend it, and asked permission to establish an orphanage in a foreign island in another clime.
Mark you those so-called Americans in Cuba were naturalized, and could not speak a word of English, and many of them possibly have never seen the shores of this county.
When an appropriation of fifty million dollars was asked for to satisfy public clamor and to enable us to interfere within the confines of the territory of a friendly power, Democrats and Republicans, Populists and Silversides, “stumbled over themselves” in the effort to comply with the request and the money was voted.
Warships have been purchased troops mobilized, men enlisted and ammunition bought.
Conservatism is thrown to the winds, and colored troops are to be forwarded to do and die in a foreign land.
War with its attendant evils will invo.ve us in a struggle, form the effect of which it will take years to recuperate.
The colored brother, as usual is forgotten, save when it comes to using him in an engagement of this kind. He built the breast works for the southern armies.
About a quarter of a century ago, it permitted a body of men, with the apparent sanction of itself to establish throughout the country offices for the saving of colored people’s money.
This concern was known as the Freedmen’s Savings Bank. Thousands of dollars were collected and squandered, and finally the bank failed.
The confiding public, (the colored brother) was duped. The United States Government promptly disclaimed all responsibility for the losses, but an agent of the government was designated to wind up the affairs of the concern.
It only required something over one million dollars to pay up the robbed depositors in full. The moral responsibility of this great nation was not denied, while its technical irresponsibility was freely admitted.
But one president, so far as we are informed has had the temerity and the nerve to deal with the question squarely in his message, and recommended in unmistakable language the appropriation asked for. That man was Grover Cleveland, a democrat greater than his party and at present living in well-earned retirement within the beautiful confines of the city of Princeton, N. J.
Isaac H. Lofton. Colored, was appointed postmaster of Hogansville, Ga.
On a dark night, a band of cowardly assassins fired, wounding him in the shoulder, and he narrowly escaped with his life.
The patrons of the office set up a boycott of the office to reduce his salary and to starving him out.
Mr. Loftine refused to be relieved or starved out, and today with an intrepidity and bravery, which is marvelous, he continues to do business “as the same old stand.” His would be murderers have not been apprehended. No company of soldier have been ordered from the far North-west to protect him. No appropriation has been either recommended or made in behalf of his suffering family or himself. ON this question, the great government, form the president of the United States to Congress is as silent as the grave.
Twenty-five thousand dollars would be a small sum in compensation for the injury which he has received. But he toils on, and hopes for the best.
Postmaster T. J. Baker, colored, was fired upon by a white mob. He was instantly killed.
The babe at its mother’s breast had its brains bespattered over the person of that saintly form who had so often lulled it to sleep and three of the other children were horribly wounded. Rewards were offered by the national government for the murderers and the fiends who perpetuated the outrage laughed.
Up to this writing, President McKinley had made no recommendation for an appropriation of either twenty-five or fifty thousand dollars for the family of this murdered official.
Condolences and empty expressions abound, but material help is not offered and around and about Washington all talk of the relief of this man’s family has been suspended.
When a German half-breed citizen in Haiti was imprisoned by the latter government for thirty days and indemnity of twenty0-five thousand dollars in gold was demanded by the German Consul General and enforced of the mouth of a cannon.
When Consul-General Lee reported that American citizens in Cuba were suffering Congress voted at once an appropriation of fifty thousand dollars. This was so much that their Consul-General could not find a way to spend it, and asked permission to establish an orphanage in a foreign island in another clime.
Mark you those so-called Americans in Cuba were naturalized, and could not speak a word of English, and many of them possibly have never seen the shores of this county.
When an appropriation of fifty million dollars was asked for to satisfy public clamor and to enable us to interfere within the confines of the territory of a friendly power, Democrats and Republicans, Populists and Silversides, “stumbled over themselves” in the effort to comply with the request and the money was voted.
Warships have been purchased troops mobilized, men enlisted and ammunition bought.
Conservatism is thrown to the winds, and colored troops are to be forwarded to do and die in a foreign land.
War with its attendant evils will invo.ve us in a struggle, form the effect of which it will take years to recuperate.
The colored brother, as usual is forgotten, save when it comes to using him in an engagement of this kind. He built the breast works for the southern armies.
About this article
Source
Location on Page
Lower Left Quadrant
Topic
Contributed By
Cali Hughes
Citation
“The Government Peculiarities,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed December 7, 2025, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/1367.