tates.
Consistent in principle, historians of this conviction have viewed
with abhorrence the seating of black men in the highest legislative
assembly of the land. Not all men, however, have concurred in this
opinion. There were those who had precisely the opposite view, basing
their argument on the necessity of the plan of reconstruction
effected, in order to preserve to the Union the fruits of its victory.

The merits of that reconstruction are not here, however, at issue. Of
far greater import for our consideration is the single fact that
Negroes were thereby sent to Congress. Did the Negroes elected to
Congress justify by their achievements their presence there? To what
extent did they give direction to the thought and policies which were
to govern and control in this nation? Manifestly an impartial judgment
in this matter may be most adequately arrived at by the setting up of
certain criteria of excellence expected to inhere in Congressmen and
measuring by these the achievements of these functionaries.
Considering the matter in this light, therefore, the following
questions are advanced as bearing a direct relationship to the
services of these Congressmen. First, what of their mental equipment
to perform the tasks of law makers? Second, as measured by their
experience in public positions of trust and by their grasp of the
public questions at that time current, to what extent did they show
capacity for public service? Third, in what directions were their
chief interests manifested?

EVIDENCES OF MENTAL EQUIPMENT

Regarding the Negro Congressmen in the light of the standards already
referred to, we shall first make inquiry as to their mental fitness to
function as law makers. Broadly considered, they may be divided into
two groups: first, those who possessed but limited education; second,
those who were college bred.

Among the men comprising the first group, certain common
characteristics are noticeable: first, they were mainly members of the
earliest Reconstruction Congresses, beginning with the Forty-first, in
which Negroes held membership, and were therefore but little removed
from slavery; second, some of them were born of slave parents or had
been, themselves, slaves; third, others were brought up in communities
which expressly prohibited the establishment of educational
institutions for Negroes; and fourth, all of them, by dint of severe
application in later years, secured, prior to their election to
C