i pronounce it menard. it's menard. and i've chosen to read as a kind of segway a love poem that menard wrote to his elizabeth, when he was in exile from her in the united states. to emt of jamaica. away from thy green island home, i sent my missives to come where the hue of the rose never dies. if thy soft gentle spirit now pines for the form that is now far away, i will se few simple lines to beguile the long, weary day. thy friendship, though young, i will keep, and its ties i will improve like wandering vines they will creep upon the power of love. thy memory like a bright sunny beam lingers near me by day and by night. like the fairy, like the swift fairy pinion and gleam of a heavenly vision of light. fare thee well in the sweet island home to the one who is far from me now, again to the so sweet for thy brow. [ applause ] >> good afternoon. i'm matt wasniewski from the i'm sure i can get these slides here. there we go. i want to thank don and rod and the capitol historical society and the illinois state society o

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 flo

menard is a great asset to this island. we are like to have him here to bring his knowledge, his expertise, his drive to educate and the society that he sets up. so this establishes him very early on in jamaican politics. he's appointed to a committee that sends a draft of letters for reform in the colonial political system to governor eyre. it was sent back to england, this petition and attached to philanthropic reports coming out of england and it was brought before the colonial office ostensibly the queen for response but governor eyre takes a very dismissive attitude toward recommendations for reform, and this causes the two factions to really come to a head in 1865, late 1865, just after the civil war is ended and just after what we thought of as a major advance for freedom in the world has been attained. it starts in the parish immediately adjacent to main menard's home. st. thomas, a parish on the eastern short of jamaica and the small conial town of morent bay. there is an african-american defendant who is being cha

menard saw this as an opportunity. while he did not agree with the notion of separating the races on account of civil rights, on account of civil liberties, and the belief that the united states government should be a white man's government, which was the argument at the time, menard did see this as an opportunity to attain his own end through the immigration movement. and find a location abroad that would accept african-americans as equals. and allow them to participate in the direction of their lives, to own property, to participate in government, to vote, to serve on juries, everything that was denied here by the dread scott decision and constitutional interpretations at the time. menard is hired in 1863 by the u.s. immigration office. we have pictures of three individuals here. the man in the center is james mitchell, who was abraham lincoln's commissioner of colonization. and he was the man that hired menard. mitchell was an irish-born american preacher that lincoln knew from illinois. he brought him to washington

he was an ally of menard's. and another event happens the british government establishes b belize as a colony. this is a copy of the agreement. this was signed on june 13th, 1863 at the white house. menard was aware of the agreement. and this is given to a man by the name of john hodge and his partner. they are both in the employ of the british company. anderson is important because he has a long-standing role in the british anti slavery movement. he had been a crusader in the british empire and he travels with hodge to washington to meet with lincoln at the white house. anderson was based on the island of jamaica. this is the first time that they meet. anderson was a wealthy and very religious philanthropist type. he devoted his cause to bettering the condition of the blacks on the island and fighting for abolition. they had a natural agreement. but after this contract of sorts was signed, the u.s. immigration office decided they needed to investigate the sight. and check it out to see what they were getting in

paul menard got tires and restarted 18 and finished up in the seventh spot. great run by menard. >> larry: steve addington gets his first win with tony stewart in the 14 team. >> mike: stewart won -- >> great job, bud. >> mike: -- six of the last 13 sprint cup races. >> darrell: combination of stewart who continues to win. grubb goes somewhere else and continues to win. dominance continues. >> mike: stewart tuned up for the weekend by getting a little dirt track racing thursday night. started seventh. passed matt kenseth as the all-time lap leader at las vegas motor speedway late in this race. >> darrell: nobody will have to explain to him this year how they lost the race. he drove off and left them. >> mike: redemption. this marks the 14th year in a row in which tony stewart has won a sprint cup race. >> darrell: amazing. good stuff. >> mike: you know the roush fenway teammates worked well at daytona. but on this last restart, the three fords got to battling each other. watch the 16, 17, and 99. >> darrell: the 99, carl edwards, goes to the apron. right here

african-american who ever spoke on the house for while it was in session was a man by the name of john willis menard from louisiana and in 1868 in a special election he was elected with 64% of the votes to a district that encompasses greater new orleans. that the election was contested by his opponents and when it came before the house elections committee the elections committee decided to see neither of the gentlemen. so he could have become the first african-american in congress by a full year, lost that. didn't take his seat. african-american representatives in the 1890s, the few is relegated to on the shaped districts. as political scientists say, to dilute and disperse black votes in 2 other districts and conversely pact to contain most african-american votes in one district to open up more districts for white candidates on the state delegations. where law and legal challenges failed, there was the imagery, fraud and violence that marred a lot of these elections in which these individuals were involved. going back to the district was an adventure to put it mildly. one man who served in those of