him to gordon. he becomes an advocate on the right of the free black population there and above all of that he starts a debate society with the purpose of increasing participation in politics and spreading lateracy of the black population of the colony. this occurs in 1865. there is a newspaper report that says he is a great asset to this island we are lucky to have him here to bring his knowledge and expertise and drive to educate. this establishes him early on in politics and he is appointed to a committee that sends a draft of letters to reform in 1865.

this is brought to the governor and sent back to england and was attached to reports that were coming out of england and brought before the office and the question for a response. governor eyre takes a dismissive attitude and this causes the two factions to come to a head just after the civil war has ended and after what we thought of as a major advance for freedom in the world has been attained. it starts in the area adjacent to his home. in the small colonial town on a routine court case there is an african-american defendant who is being charged with a fine for alleged trespass on an abandoned plantation that had been allowed

to become over grown and this particular defendant in the case had crossed onto the land and we think that he may have attempted to cultivate some food. the class was attempting to clamp down on black attempts to establish property rights. this vindividual was brought before the court and given a fine and outside he is met by a man, bogul with a group of men liberates this prisoner of captivity after the court ruling. governor eyre does not take kindly to this and cracks down with an iron fist on the

settlers sends in the army and declares marshal law. over the next days of rioting there is annen graving of what happened in the bay. over 400 residents are murdered shot down. in the course of this event, with marshal law declared, the governor's troops sweep through the east and round up anyone who was deemed a political agitator. this includes meynard, samuel clark and in a display of arrogance it includes george william gordon who was living in ki kingston at the time and had no

participation in the events. governor eyre had him arrested in kingston loaded on horseback and loaded into the zone and taken onboard a military ship where his lawyer attempts to visit him and serve him and is refused by the milt authorities and he knows that his ally has been taken into captivity and he also probably knows what was going on. after anderson has refused t therity they come in and execute him for treason. on the charge of inciting a revolt. meynard is taken to a prison

camp and probably escapes hanging himself because he was an american. they noticed that an american was among the accused and put pressure on the government to release him. this was achieved on the same day that clark is brought up and executed. the u.s. takes him and places him on the next ship bound to new orleans. under u.s. government purchase they bought him the ticket. his wife and young child were left behind he didn't have time to say good-bye to her which comes up later in his career he reunited with the family and they are able to make it out to new orleans. when he leaves jamaica and is brought to new orleans his stock

rises and he is an eye wait nes to the events that just happened. this is a letter that he wrote. mill finds out about what happened to gordon and clark. and begins to petition within the government to bring up the governor on charges of murder and violation of due process of law. he becomes a correspondent of mill and writes him a first-hand account that he presents his evidence in the court. governor escaped any repercussion with the charges. it was a vibrant debate that occurred at the time that separated the two factions. the liberal and the coloniali i

faction. mill formed a committee and john bright the english free trader and this was the committee to prosecute governor eyre. on the other side, and this is what my friend steve davies said, the good guys, the other side was a committee formed by carlyle, he brought to his side charles dickens the famous involve novelist and several members to defend eyre from prosecution. mills succeeds in using this evidence in bringing the governor up on charges but the jury influenced by carlyle

refuses to indite. but meynard has seen his stock rice as a leading light in the cause of freedom worldwide. he has arrived in new orleans as well and begins to notice quickly that the johnson's administration commitment is lacking. he says the only difference is that the former follows event while the latter with an ignorance mingled with ambition makes and controls them. in new orleans with the fire in his chest to fight this injustice enters politics and decides that after all, maybe we

should stake our claim in the united states where a black man and a white man can run for congress on equal terms. he obtains ownership of a newspaper in 1866 and uses this as a spring board that gets him elected to the united states house of representatives two years later on a special election. i will conclude here with a picture on his arrival in 1869. it was an international event. this picture was taken out of harper's weekly the times of london covered it and they knew him from the eyre incident. so his international stock. the final remarkable thing about his life was when he arrived in

congress in 1869, he was only 30 years old. he accomplished this entire career of being a leader within the united states abolition movement, one of the instigateters and leaders in the reform movement and the first african-american elected into congress at the age of 30. and with that i will turn it over to matthew. >> mr. davis, if you would stay for one moment. so i'm not matt, i'm rod ross and i want to thank you clayton mckendra fellow board member here. arkansas's loss has been

illinois's gain for both of them. i'm pleased that the congressman was able to come. the book, a little slave boy with the desire to learn and to be free is a great children's work. she republished her work with a may 24th, 2011 quote from the congressman, attesting to its inspiration al character. so, i will let you leave and all is well. thank you so much. [ applause ] . >> in 2004, the congressman, was emceeing for an event that the illinois state society put on with his office that honored three co-ed tors of a university

of tampa press republication of the 19th century volume of poetry menard growing up in illinois. and i have chosen to read a love poem that menard wrote to his wife elizabeth when he was in exile from her in the united states. to emt of jamaica, way from thy green island home, though send edge me mrs. to come. if thy soft gentle spirit though comes, i will send you these lines to beguile the long weary day. and it's ties i will try to

improve until like wandering vines they will become on the faint power of love. like the fairy pinion and gleam of a heavenly vision of light. fair thee well in thy sweet island home until the one who is far from thee now til thy kisses shall come from thy brow. >> good afternoon. i'm sure i can get these slides here, i want to thank don and rod and the capitol historical society and the illinois state society of washington d.c. for org nazing this event. and rod has asked me to offer

something of an after ward to phil's presentation to tell you something about his history in the 1860s and put him in context of that generation of pioneers who served in the house shortly after. 143 years ago this february 27th, menard broke one of american history's color barriers. like so many moments, that moment was both triumphphal and sir co rounded. he was to be seated in the house and the galleries were crowded

and the house gave him it's undivided attention. now, we might be content to relegate him to a curious historical footnote after all, there were earlier curious foot notes. in february of 1865, house chaplain william channing invited garnet to commemorate the house's approval of the 13th amendment to deliver a sermon in the house chamber and that was a unique moment because african-americans had been banned from the house chamber going back to the 1820s. but garnet wasn't speaking in the house while it was in

session and he wasn't makeing hs case to be seated as a representative. >> his brief 15 minute speech on february 27th delivered from a desk symbolized the age in one stroke it evoked the history after the civil war while suggesting some of the continuities which would animate the careers of the 20 black men which would follow them onto the house floor between 1870 and 1901. evoking their victories and struggles and decline and

exclusion from congress. first i want to provide some background on contested election. 19th century elections set the gold standardard for that. during the reconstruction era in the south we know african-american african-americans put hundreds of men into office and menard was nominated on october 4th of 1868. to run in the special election to succeed james man. this was for the final few months of the 40th congress which was set to expire in march of 1869. he made it clear that he intended to test the sincerity of his party's frequent needs.

he wrote the ballot needs equal representation as well as equal rights. if men are still to be barred from congress as well as the white house on a count of the color of their faces then the race will not be adequate and the cause of equal rights will not be accomplished until men will be seen as equal. he won with 64% of the vote it would have made him the first african-american to serve in congress. but his opponent challengethed his right to be seated. as the house elections committee would soon uncover more than 80% of the votes there thrown out

swinging the election to menard. thousands of african-american men appeared to be thrown out by fraud. republican simon jones challenged the validity of the vote arguing that jones, are you takie ining notes? that he was the rightful winner and there was no vacancy adding another layer of complexity that the louisiana second district in which this mess was occurring had been redistricted in july of

1868. the geography were greatly changed since representative mann's fill the old district in which the vacancy occurred or the new district? on february 27th, 1869 following weeks of gathering testimony by the committee on elections, the full house quickly dispatched jones' claim. menard and caleb hunt were invited to present their cases on the floor, hunt declined, but menard came to the floor to speak on behalf of his con sit wents. he said, i would feel myself c recrea nch recreant if i did not oppose their rights on the floor. on account of my face, or former condition of that race. menard protested hunt's challenge on numerous ground, chief among them was that, indeed, vote counts in majority

black wards appeared to be severely depressed. but after a long afternoon of debate, a majority of the full house agreed with the committee on elections, which reported that neither hunt nor menard should be seated because of the mayhem surrounding the election. and the house then moved very quickly to deny hunt the seat and then moved to menard whom it rejected 130-57, and the vast majority of those votes for menard were radical republicans who had been supportive of him. and the seat remained vak can't for the final week of the congress. but the story didn't end there. a couple days later on march 3rd, representative henry dawes of massachusetts took to the house floor and he came to admonish colleagues who were seeking to reduce the payment that had been promised menard for traveling to washington, for living in d.c. for two months while he made his case before the committee on elections.

mr. jones, who had contested mann's election was paid the full freight, $2500. but in menard's case the committee on accounts proposed lowering that amount to $1500. now, to be fair, the chairman of this three-person panel and it was a rather backwards panel had decided he could get some attention and save the house a little bit of cash and he also recommended that caleb hunt only be paid $1,500 in this case. but dawes objected to this because he smelled that there was more than just pecuniary motivation at work for the reduction and the reaction to him in the chamber was telling. i appeal to the house that they will be not carried away by their prejudiceses against color and race, dawes said. i appeal to them, not to treat him by one rule and the white man by another. i ask the gentleman who passed

the constitutional amendment to see that this is not done. mr. speaker, it is unconstitutional to treat him differently. and the congressional globe, which often has wonderful little asides in it from this time period, reported that it was laughter that greeted each refrain of this staccato appeal to menard's 14th amendment rights and the guarantees of the 15th amendment which the house and the senate had approved and sent to the states for ratification just days before menard's speech. looking back on the contested election episode, the baltimore sun declared, the fact of a colored man making a speech upon the floor of the house was one so novel that the greatest attention was paid by republicans and democrats. menard failed, however, to make an impression and it is safe to say that no other colored man will again have so good an opportunity to make an impression for no one will be

again listened to with such care. as we know that verdict was premature. within a year, capitol hill marked the appointment of high ram revels of mississippi. an african-american man appointed to a brief term in the u.s. senate. the press dubbed him the 15th amendment in flesh and blood and later in 1870 joseph rainy of south carolina won a special election to the u.s. house of representatives, becoming the first african-american to serve in our institution. the arrival of revels and rainy ranked among the great paradoxes in american history. just a decade earlier, these african-americans congressional seats were held by southern slave holders. in so many aspects menard's background and his experiences foreshadowed those of african-americans who would shortly follow him into congress

as phil just alluded to, he was young, he was just 30 years old when he made that speech on the house floor, like a lot of the men who would follow him in the 1870s and 1880s. he was born into a mixed race family. he was exceedingly well educated, relative to his c contemporaries and like all those who would follow him in the next decade he was from a reconstructed republican government in the south, and as did menard, african-americans elected after him found allies among radical republicans on capitol hill. menard's contested election too was a preview of what awaited other black politicians. such cases skyrocketed in the late 19th century particularly in the south and black representatives were profoundly affected by these contested elections. three of them, joseph rainey, josiah walls of florida and

richard cane all lost contested elections at one point in their career. five other african-american members of congress spent valuable time and resources to defend their contested seats, missing opportunities to introduce legislation or to speak on the house floor. and one example, defeated for re-election in 1894, in a contest that was marred by widespread abuses george murray of south carolina spent the entire third session of the 53rd congress in late 1894 and early 1895 preparing evidence to overturn the results of that election and regain his seat in the next congress. compiling the foot thick stack of paperwork to give to the committee left him no time to legislate. and so overwhelmed was that committee on elections during this era at one point the house had three committees on elections to handle all the contested election cases. so overwhelmed was that

committee, that the -- with the staggering workload that it often would deliberate cases until late into a congress leaving contestants in the form of legislative limbo. murray eventually won his seat in the following congress, but he wasn't receipted until june of 1896, a year and a half into ace two-year congress. reconstructions often have been called the second american revolution and in recent decades because of the growing literature we've come to appreciate just how profound and also incomplete that revolution was. menard's legacy, of course, was that he was at the very vanguard of a group of african-americans who came into congress. but his experience in being excluded from the seat also intimate what is would occur to african-american congressmen at the end of the century. after formal reconstruction ended in the south in 1877, and what occurred was a process that

we're familiar with that took place over several decades in which legal and extra legal methods of disenfranchisement and a system of customs and laws collectively known as jim crow systemically and ruthlessly excluded african-americans from democratic government. but like menard's modest but noteworthy part in all this, the work of 19th century pioneer representatives and senators, african-americans, laid the groundwork for bigger changes and better chances at participation that awaited social and political movements in the 20th century. and with that, thank you and i'll turn it back to john. [ applause ] >> well, thank you, matt and phil, time for just a few questions so if you have a question, please direct it to one of our speakers. yes. are there questions?

comments? okay. well, it is 1:00, so i thank you all for your attendance and look forward to seeing you again at our next program. thank you. [ applause ] the strong support we have in our region of the country from which this originated gives us an excellent base to go forth on the day of november the 5th with and in my judgment we'll go forth in the beginning with at least the 107 electoral votes that surprise the states of the south and border and when you couple that with just a few other states of the union, then you have the 270 odd electoral votes necessary to win the presidency. >> as candidates campaign tore president this year, we look back at 14 men who ran for the office and lost. go to our websit