James A. Garfield's "REVOLUTION IN CONGRESS" speech, 3/29/1879.

~A Thread~

In Mar. 1879, the federal government faced an unprecedented government shutdown. Democrats held a majority in the House of Representatives and attached riders to funding bills to prohibit use of

1/7 federal marshals & troops at polling places to protect voters at the polls. They argued that these were illegal protections for Black voters, who at that time voted overwhelmingly Republican. Republicans opposed the riders, and Congress could not pass a $45 million

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"The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of citizenship is the most important political change we have known since the adoption of the Constitution of 1787. NO thoughtful man can fail to appreciate its beneficent effect upon our institutions & people.
1/6 It has freed us from the perpetual danger of war & dissolution. It has added immensely to the moral & industrial forces of our people. It has liberated the master as well as the slave from a relation which wronged & enfeebled both. It has surrendered to their own guardianship 2/6

“The warnings uttered today are not new. During the last twelve years it has often been rung in our ears that by doing justice to the Negro we shall pull down the pillars of our political temple and bury ourselves in its ruins.

I remember well when it was proposed to

1/7 put arms in the hands of the black man to help us in the field. I remember in the Army of the Cumberland where there were twenty thousand Union men from Kentucky & Missouri and we were told that those men would throw down their arms & abandon our cause if we dared to make

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“Soon after the great struggle began, we looked behind the army of white rebels, & saw 4,000,000 of black people condemned to toil as slaves for our enemies; & we found that the hearts of these 4,000,000 were God-inspired with the spirit of Liberty, and that they were all

1/4 our friends.

We have seen white men betray the flag & fight to kill the Union; but in all that long, dreary war we never saw a traitor in a black skin. Our comrades escaping from the starvation of prison, fleeing to our lines by the light of the North star, never feared

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"Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom & of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of

1/7 Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits & express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?...

What, to the American slave, is your

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Today is #Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.

Related words from James A. Garfield…

“We began the war for the Union alone, but we had not gone far into its darkness before a new element was added to the conflict...In lessons that

1/6 could not be misunderstood, the Nation was taught that God had linked to our own, the destiny of an enslaved race-that their liberty & our Union were indeed 'one & inseparable'...The soil beneath our feet was watered by the tears of slaves, in whose hearts the sight of

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“The warnings uttered today are not new. During the last twelve years it has often been rung in our ears that by doing justice to the Negro we shall pull down the pillars of our political temple and bury ourselves in its ruins…But, sir, I have lived long enough to learn

1/4 that in the long run it is safest for a nation, a political party, or an individual man to dare to do right, and let the consequences take care of themselves, for he that loseth his life for the truth's sake shall find it…What is this bill? It is a declaration that every

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By 1880, many Republicans believed the federal government had done all it could or should for African Americans by ending slavery and passing the so-called "Reconstruction amendments" to the Constitution. While some Republicans began to look toward industrialists and

1/7 financiers as new allies, James A. Garfield-the party's presidential candidate-continued to speak up about civil rights issues & to insist that the Republican party remain true to its roots as a party working toward equality for all.

On Aug. 6, 1880-142 years ago today-

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