Decatur Democrat, Volume 24, Number 20, Decatur, Adams County, 19 August 1880 — Page 9

r gg g-O P" 5/ ia Indiaat* and eWM»« Mt ~ -rfiilej pint -o obtai u vLc‘tc ry - ported -voters, the Thomas P. Mills, of Indianapolis, becomes simply a very natural and harmonious feature of a case already [ made ent. His testimony is found on pa ge 201, part 1, of the printed evidence. 'Thomas P. Mills sworn and examined. By the CHairman: Q. Where do you reside? A. Indianapolis. Q. What do you do there ? A. Mr. Morris and I are partners in the real estate and railroading business, etc., and dealing in western lands. Q. What do you know about the immigration of negroes into Indianapolis and Indiana 1 A. I don’t know us I know mueh about it. 1 know there have been a good many people go there. Q. flow many? A. I could not tell you. After they once pass there I lose eight of them. Q. Have you taken some interest in this matter? A*. Yes, sir. Q. You have been In favor of emigration? A. Yes, sir; I was very mueh in favor of it. I told the Loya when they first camo there that we wanted 20,000 ' bucks’” buck niggers, in Indiana this year. Q. You mean tosay that you wanted 20,000 men? A. Yes, sir. (J. You had no use for women? A. No, sir; we had no special use for ftiem. Q. You had no idea of labor connected with this matter? A. No, sir; I had no idea of labor. I was looking for votes. Q. You wanted these twenty thousand “bucks” to vote? A. I wanted them tovote, of course. Q. Are you a Republican? A. Yes, sir; I amQ. And you thought if you could get twenty thousand “bucks” yon would stay us? A. 1 thought we would get away with you everlastingly. « Q. Have you mixed with them much since they came here? A. The colored folks? Q. Yes. A. No, sir; except at the depot. We have anodice near the depot, and when a gang woe coming in I would go down and see them. Q. Have they come in as fast as you desired? A. They have not come iniul wanted them to. Q. There has been rather more women aud children than you wanted? A. Yes, sir; they have rather overdone the thingin the women and children. Q. Have you noticed Mr. Mills, whether any considerable party of them have to be taken care of by charty? A. Well, I could not tell you Mr. Senator. 1 have not been at their headquarters much. Q. Have you been called upon to contributo to their support? A. Not largely. Q. Were you raised on a farm as well as your partner? A. Yes, sir. Q. Os course you think these twenty thousand “bucks” could be scattered around and get employment throughout the State ? A. Yes, sir; I thought we could get employment for them if wo scattered them pretty thin. Q. You mean in close counties? A. Yes, sir; in. close counties and where there are cheap lands. Q. Then you mean to scatter them in close counties where there are cheap lauds ? A, Yes, sir. Q. You are pretty well read, Mr. Mills, in the newspapers of the State ? A. Yes, sir; I read them pretty generally. Q. Now, will yon tell this committee whether you have ever seen an article in a republican newspaper opposing or condemning this movement of the negroes? A, I have not. Q. Do you read the democratic papers, too ? A. Yes, sir; and they everlastingly go for it. Q. Then I am to understand that the republican papers approve of it? A. I should think they did, trom their tone. Q. A’ou say, so far as you know, you think your vi. ws are substantially shared iu by the republicans of your State. A. I thiuk they are as individuals. Q. Did you ever talk with Mr. Martindale about this matter ? A. Yes, sir ; several times. Q. His paper is not disapproving of the movement ? A. No, sir. Q. Rather encouraging it, is he not ? A. Yes, sir ; I should say ho was. Q. He has always announced that there was plenty of room in Indiana for negroes ? A. Yes, sir. Q. That they could g,et employment ? A. Yes, sir. Q. And that there were good times there? A, Yes r sir. Q. And that they ought to get out of Egypt? A. Yes, sir. COL. NEW ALSO INSISTS THAT TOO MANY WOMEN AND CHILDREN CAME. Thomas P. Mills is a man of as much character and respectability as any examined by the committee, and that ho revealed the true purposes of his patty associates is conclusively proven, not only by his own testimony, but also by all the powerful corroborating facts brought to light in the course of the investigation. Johu C. New, the chairman of the Republican State Central Committee, indorses him as a consistent Republican for the last twenty-five or thirty years, and in point of fact corroborates his testimony. While Mr. New was seeking to deny the political motives of the negro emigration to Indiana, the following examination took place: Q. Has it not been something like this ■ That you Continued on opposite pas'-.

ooco—■® ”g- h B— 3 Ss S ■ /• I < c est Tin n w p''t I Government duties and with the instructions of liis I 1 ' superiors to engage very exensivoly iu the business of 1 negro importation into Vigo and surrounding counties. Bi i ng of that raeo himself, he has beeu used as a decoy to iuduceothers in large numbers to light down in that part of Indiana. The postal service appears to have received general orders ou this subject throughout the State. Early in the investigation we overtook Walker, the Terre Haute mail agent, working with a zeal which blinded him to the truth, and showed him so intent on the scheme that ho cured but little for the correctness of his representations. On page 92 of the first part of the printed testimony will be found three letters from him, obtained in the examination of Captain Wall, the Presideutof tho Washington Emigrant Aid Society, iu one of these letters, addressed to Mr. Adams, former secretary of the society, and written iu November last, Walleer holds out bewildering inducements to the emigrant. He makes and repeats the statement that “there never was such a demand for farm-hands and laborers of all classes” as prevailed at that time in Indiana. He says that farmers were paying from 815 to 820 per month and board. Speaking of the great coal mines in Western Indiana, he says that within the last few days, prior to writing this letter, he had received applications for at least five hundred miners, and that one mine alone, at that time, two hundred men could get wo:k. The miner, he said, could mako from $2.50 to $5 per day. With an enticing reference to the equality of the races in the schools of Indiana, his letter concludes. In another brief note Walker makes the following important statement: I am goint to Saint Louis, Missouri, which is one hundred and sixty-five miles from here, and making ' arrangements to get refugees to come this way, but this is a private matter. Under the laws and regulations of the postal service ' a United States mail agent has no right to leave his post of duty without official leave granted. I presume ! Walker had no difficulty iu obtaining such leave when 1 he made known the object of his errand. Whether , carrying the mail from day to day, and almost from hour to hour, at Terre Haute, or absentin Saint Louis arranging for negroes “to come this way,” he was still * in the employ of a Republican administration, and 0 under pay out of the public treasury. The third of these epistles from Walter reads as fol- e lows: , Terre Haute, Ind., January 5,1880. J My Dear Sir: I am directed to write you concerning the colored refugees leaving Washington for Indiana. B I was directed by Mr. Perry to write you. Now, what I want is this: The first time you have any of those 1 people on hand, and wanting to come to this State, , please send me about fifteen families. I have places for them as soon as they can get here ; and if such should 1 bo the case, telegraph me at my expense what day they ' will leave Washington for Terre Haute. 1 J. H. WALKER, Torre Haute, Indiana. Captain Wall. c It would be curious to ascertain who furnished not only Walker’s traveling expenses to Saiut Louis and ' otherdistantpoints, butalso who contributed to assist in defraying his telegraphic correspondence. Whatever may be his zeal and energy in tlfu cause, hs ‘ was not doing ail this himself. 1 But there is stillanother exploit of Walker’s which calls for passing attention. He obtained leave of absence to attend a colored convention, during the sum- ’ mei- of 1879, at Nashville, Tennessee. Upon his re- * turn he issued his circular, not for publication in tho newspapers, but for distribution in quarters where 6 they “would do the most good.” Asi' has, however, beeu widely published during the progress of this in- 13 vestigatiou, I will notr-adit herein full. In it he 1 announced that ho had demands from different localities in Indiana for the presence of eighteen hundred negr» families in the State. He cried to the ne- ° gro population of the South to come —come one, come all; that the laborers were few in Indiana, and the harvest was great. Eighteen hundred families! * Whether Walker exaggerated the number ho haste look after or not, this statement shows on what a vast A scale he understood the importation to have been arranged by those above him. It was no light shower 1 that Walker had been tanghtto expect. Heanticipated ilood. He was jubilant at the prospects for the ° Republican party. Paul K. McCoskey, a Republican, and one of uro oldest, most reliable, and respected citizens of Terre Haute, speaking of Walker in his B1 testimony before the committee, says: — “ A day or two after he came back from that con- ' vention down South ho saw me, audran ever to meet c me on the street. He seemed to be in a very good way, aud I think he had iquor in him. I asked him what was the matter, and he said ho had made a good thingout of his trip. Ho said he had made arrange- r ments to turn the negro emigrants into Indiana so as t to get ten thousand in there aud carry tho State.” c STRONG CONFIRMATION OF THE MATTER. J. Walker states in the letter I have just quoted that t he was going to Saiut Louis te turn the negro emi- j. grants to Indiana, and yet, when McCoskey swears e that he told him he had been iu the same business v exactly at Nashville the truth ot McCo-key’s state- \ ment, I see, has been questioned. Walker convicts t himself absolutely, and beyond a word of doubt, by j, his letter to Adams of the same thing testified to by McCoskey, and his tongue being a little loosened he - imparted to his republican frieud that it would en-

a Ia - s ~ <= ■ 3 ■? o t 77 ? S' Z tlift coi»Bt:intly-cirri vinp; colored ■voters to diflereOt 1 parts of the State. Twenty-seven tickets, which Mor- I ris saw him purchase at that time, from Indianap- I oils to Greencastle, would cost about $42. Who furnished Reynolds with that money ? It is not pretended that it was his own. Where did he get it? But before answering that sjuestion I will read a portion of the testimony of Thomas P. Mills relating to another transaction similar to that described by Morris. His testimony on that point is as follows : O Q. Is there any other financial transaction in refference to this matter with which you are acquainted? A. Yes, sir. There was money raised to send them to Greencastle. Q. Do you know how much? A. I don’t know exactly how many went, but I know it was a grand day in the business. Q. It was a pretty good day in the business? A. Yes, sir. Q. Do you know who raised that money to take them to Greencastle. A. Well I went down to see iu reference to it, because, as Mr. Morris has told you. we wanted to get the number ot the tickets, and 1 heard there was quite a number of them down there, and I went to see how many of them there were and where they were going. I went down there and saw about it, and I spoke to Mr. Reynolds about it. Q. What occurred between you and Reynolds? A. He reached me the tickets and took the numbers; and I asked if they were fixed, and he said: “I have sent a man up towa to get the money aud fix them .” Q. Do you remember how many tickets there were? A. There were from fifty to seventy-five. Q. Are you personally acquainted with Mr. Reynolds? A. Yes, sir. Q. What position does he hold? A. He is a mail agent. Q. A’here? A. At tho Union depot at Indianapolis. Q. If you understand it, what is his duty? To see that the mail Is transferred from tbe depot to the office, and from the office to the depot? A. Yes, sir. Q. It is a very important office, then? A. Yes, sir; I believe so. Q. Is it an office of appointment by the Government or by the postmaster? A. Yes, sir; I think it is by appointment of the Government. Q. Do you know Mr. Reynolds’ politics? A. Yes, sir. Q. Is he a republican? A. Yes, sir. Q. Do you know how he came possessed of those fifty or sixty tickets? A. Well, sir, he bought them. 1 saw him buy them, but I don’t know where the money came from. He said to me that he sent up town for the money. Q. And yon saw him buy the tickets ? A. Yes, sir. I saw him inside the office; and he came out and gave me the tickets, and I took the numbers of them. Q. Do you remember what the fare is from Indianapolis to Greencastle ? A. It is something over a dollar. Q. A dollar and fifty five cents? A. Yes, sir; a dollar and fifty-five cents exactly. Q. And he had money enough to purchese fifty or sixty tickets at that rate? A. Yes, sir. THE REPUBLICAN STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE ENGAGED IN IT. In this instance the amount of money required by Reynolds would be something like a hundred dollars, and be told Mills he had “sent up town for it-” He knew where to send; he knew where tho money provided for this business was to be promptly had. There was no delay in running around with a subscription list. The money was all ready, aud dedicated to the scheme then on foot. It was subject to Reynolds’s orders as depot-master of negro distribution throughout Indiana. Now, recurring again to the testimony of L C. Morris, who is a Republican, I think an explanation of Reynolds’s unfailing financial resources will be found: Q. State whether you ever had any communication with or from any member of tho State Central Republican committee, or anybody employed by them, on the subject of this emigration business? A 1 do not know certainly. I believe there was a gentleman who clerks there who came down and inquired of me how much it would cost to send these people to Greencastle aud Terre Haute. Q. What was his name ? A. G.W. Horton. Q. You say ho clerks for the State central Republican committee ? A. Yes,sir. Q. Is he a full clerk there? A. I think he is a deputy clerk, Q. Well, he is employed there any way? A. Yes, sir. Q. And he made Inquiry to knew what it would cost to send these people to Greencastle and Terre Haute? A. Yes, sir. Q. Was that before or after this lot was sent? A. It was before. Q. Did you tell him? A. Yes, air; I gave him tho rate. Q. Did he make a memorandum of it? A. No, sir; I think not. Q. Did the conversation between you stop there? A. No, sir; we talked on iu a general way as to the number that were coming, aud all that. Q What did he say? A. He asked how many I thought had gone out, and how many would come. That was about the substance of it. The clerk of the State central committee of the Republican party of Indiana is here discovered making special inquiries of a railroad passenger agent as to the cost of sending negroes from Indianapolis to

e* I ■—- '-Jl—He testified that lie had been iu correspondence with Colonel Dudley, United States Marshal of Indiana, and others ou this subject. He said that Colonel Dudley disclaimed the negro emigration into Indiana as a republican party measure, but Hoped nevertheless tbe Degrees would come. The following is the interesting colloquy which took place in committee between Mr. Mendenhall aud the chairman in regard to the position of Colonel Dudley, the United Slades marshal for Indiana: Q. Did ho seem to think he would like to have them there to vote us down? A. Yes, sir; I think he did. Q. Then he disclaimed the act but was willing to take the fruits? A. Yes, sir; that is about it. I hope the exposure of this coy prudence of Colonel Dudley, here so graphically described — a prudence as old as the world —which simpers and halts somewhat in the face of temptation, but always at last accepts the profits of crime while washing its bands of tbe blood of criminal commission ; I hope that its exposure by Mr. Mendenhall will not be attributed by the marshal and his friends to any other than its true source — a Republican source. -A. »*«

*l**1 1. hO pOSßlble motive to injure tli»* br,-tliren, but rather a strong motive to shield them, uweuiH directly hu«l ex plicitly that he halted three daya at Indianapolis on his trip gouth to aid the exodus in order to aacertain what encouragement, if any, there was for negro emigration to Indiana; that he there met the chairman of the republican State central committee, the editor of the recognized State organ of the republican party, the postmaster of the city of Indianapolis, and many others, and that he was assured by them that from five to ten thousand negroes could find employment in that State. The numbers here spoken of wore to be voters, not encumbered by women and children, for when General Conway was asked whether the gentlemen with whom he was in consultation at Indianapolis understood that the emigration of the negroes was to be of political advantage to the State, and for the purpose of carrying the State for the Republicans, he answered that they understood the whole thing and gave it great encouragement. Thus again assured of political co-operation in hie efforts, General Conway journeyed on from Indianapolis to Saint Louis and then to Kansas City. His mission to those cities was a most natural one in the light of his stay at IndianaI polls. He says that he found negroes arriving there fcom the South, and tried to divert them to Indiana. • f course he did; it was so arranged, so stipulated in secret political conclave. Conway’s movements and labors were the result of no vague, uncertain, ill-de-fined plan of action. He moved from the National headquarters of the Republican party in this city to the headquarters of that party in Indiana, and from there under instructions to Missouri and Kansas. He even returned to Indianapolis to report his proceedings further west. He testifies that on his return East he stopped over and reported to his friends in Indianapolis that he had met and encouraged emigrating negroes to come to Indiana, thus putting them in the entire possession ot every detail of this scheme of colored colonization for political purposes. He had advised with the leading men of Kansas, and it had been agreed that the heavy stream of colored emigration should be diverted, if possible, from that State into Indiana, and all this he faithfully communicated to his political coadjutors at Indianapolis. Hear him, in the following passage of refreshing frankness: — • A _ A .. _ 1 . A I. . » .1,(1 Vivi o 1 no 1 I w

to organize and provide tiro needed fuDna." ORGANIZATION OK TUB MOVEMENT. J It will be seen from this pas-ago of the Senator’s ■ speech of February 7. 1879, that he not only proposed ' a select committee to encourage the exodus of the ne- ' gro, butthat he likewise suggested the very plan by which It could be beet promoted Ho declared that ' “tho patriotism and philanthropy of the people,’’ 1 meaning of course the people of the North, “could be J confidently relied on to organize and provide the needed funds.” This was the first suggestion, as far us I know, of the organization of emigrant aid societies which sprung up ho rapidly almost immediately afterward. “Organize and provide the needed funds! These are the words of the benator from Minuesota spoken with reference to the action of tho Northern people in their efforts to promote the negro exodus from the Southern to the Northern States, and they were acted upon at various points without delay The voice of the Senator was heeded, as it ought to be, by his parfy followers. His counsels were accepted by his party associates, beth white and black, and societies were at once organized to “provide the needed funds.” One was formed in this city and one in Saint Louis. It is a circumstance to be note 1 and remembered that between Washington City and Saint Louis the only other emigrant aid societies were established in Indiana. * * ” ■:> * These societies were secret so far as the general public was concerned. Their existence was'unknown except to those connected with them until the present investigation exposed them. The gn at body of the people of Indiana did not know that secret organizations were at work in their midst, pursuant to the suggestion of the Benator from Minnesota, to induce negroes in large numbers to come into the State, and to provide means for the transportation of such as were paupers. It was at first a liiddeu conspiracy so far as Indiana was concerned, to stock the state with a worthless black population. The conspirators —of course I do not use that word in connection with the Benator from Minnesotamoved about for a time in the dark and fancied themselves secure from exposure. That the object of tho conspiracy was to assist the republican party and to secure its ascendency in Indiana, if possible, is a matter of the clearest demonstration under the i irnt »£

Kt K« * * •> «C» INDIANA THE OBJECTIVE POINT. Sir, every particular of this evidence, great and small, indicates the State of Indiana as an objetive point for the movement of tbe colored people in their emigration Northward. There is no exception or qualification to this statement. In every ramification of the exodus scheme its long and repulsive arms are found reaching out to embrace the only western State which is reliably Democratic. Every thought and every circumstance connected with tho negro emigre tion movement takes hold upon Indiana as a cardinal feature and condition of the whole afiair. There is no other reason why that State should have such an unsoughtand degrading associadon except that a desperate and unscrupulous political party, defeated over aud over again by her people, have determined to win a victory by the basest means ever yet known iu American politics. The efforts to change the current of emigration from Kansas to Indiana not meeting with desired success, a new field was entered upon. All of a sudden, with only here and tnere a symptom of the conspiracy apparent, a tide of negro emigrants broke loose from the State of North Carolina and came rushing pslL mell through this city on their way to the State of Indiana, filling the country with their charges of bad treatment in the South, and their visions of a negro paradise in the North. 11 is a strange spectacle, and struck the country with amazement. The emigration was composed of tbe most worthless, thriftless, and indigent portion of the colored population, and they appealed for charity at every step, and talked loudly about being fugitives from a house of oppression aud virtual bondage. The sympathy of the country was aroused, and the groundwork of the approaching Presidential campaign was being rapidly laid on a fresh and enormous supply ot alleged Southern outrages. There were two strong and controlling circumstances, however, which inclined men to suspect, even in the absence of further proof, that the movement was a fraud, and that the real oject of it was not disclosed. The first of these two circumstances was the fact, which I personally know, that the people of Indiana, not the Republican politicians, but the honest, industrious masses of both parties, had no inducements to offer to such a class of emigrants to settle iu their midst. THE PROMISED NEW CANAAN. I knew that Indiana had never courted the presence of a large negro population in her borders, and that she especially did not encourage the advent of the pauper element of that population in the South. I kuew further that the negroes themselves, if left to their own minds, uninfluenced by political emissaries and glowing circulars describing a country of ease, high wages, and abundance, would never have chosen Indiana as their New Canaan, their promised land, filled with corn and wine aud flow, iug with milk and honey. It was plain to my mind that they were not guided in their selection ot that State by any instinct or judgment of their own, nor did they follow a cloud by day, or a pillar of fire by night, or any other lofty agency iu their jourueyings thither. NoMoses, with the light of tho buruing bush iu his laceand tho oracles of God on his tongue, called them forth to go up out of Egvpt, beyond Jordan, into a land set apart for them and their posterity forever. The book of Israel’s exodus and the book of the negre exodus do not read alike. For the ono there was the inspiration of the Almighty; for tbe other the inspiration of political ambition. For the one the Almighty spoke au d commanded; for the other ambitious politicians conspired in the dark aud schemed together to dethrone the sovereignty of a State. Upon the exodus of Israel depended the fulfillment of the decrees of Heaven, while upon tho exodus of the negro depended the election of a republican President, which cau not take place without the sub version of tbe will of the majority iu Indiana. The one was led by him who from the the top of Pisgah, with an undimmed eye, overlooked all the land of Gilead and there died and was buried by the angels; the other was led by the furtive, hurrying, false-tongued agents of a corrupt conspiracy against the purity and integrity of American suffrage. Sir, knowing that Indiana did not want the negro

Q. Recurring to the point, whom did you principally see at Indianapolis? A. I saw a number of gentlemen there who were interested in the matter— some who were purely philantrophic, and some who were distinguished politicians. Q. Name some of those distinguished politicians? A. I do not think I could name any except those whom you mentioned— Messrs. New and Martindale, and others. Q. They knew what your purposes were? A Yes, sir; distinctly, sir; and the whole country knew it. Q. And as you understood them, they were willing to co-operate witfti you in turning a portion of this emigration into Indiana? A. Yes, sir. Q With whom did you principally talk in Kansas upoti this subject? A. I talked with a great many everywhere I went. There were probably fifteen thousand people at Lawrence, where I made a speech on the subject, and that attracted a good deal of attention to me. Q. Apart from that, did you talk with prominent men there about the desirability of diverting a portion of these people from their State to other Northern and Western States? A. Yes, sir; I talked to Covernor St. John, Rev. Mr. Muujoe, and otheYs. Q The sentiment in Kansas among prominent men like Governor St. John was that there was some dread they would get more of these people than was good for the State or the colored people, and one feature of the plan was then to divert a good deal of it elsewhere? Yes, sir; that was the sentiment. Q When you camo back to Indianapolis, did you make Known to Mr. New and Mr. Martindale that you had conversed with prominent men in Kansas, and that an effort would be made to divert some of these people to Indiana ? THE PERSISTENT GLORIFICATION OF THE NEGRO RACE. A. I believe I did. I desire just here to make this further statement: In regard to the inquiries made of me as to whether I had any political objects in view in connection with Indiana, or any other State, I wish to interpolate this : I believe that tho negro is a useful man; that he is a law abiding man, naturally; and I deem it a great wrong to him to express the opinion that he would be a detriment to any Northern State He served us faithfully in the war, as he had previously worked faithfully in time of peace. There are fewer dependents, and paupers, and vagabonds, in proportion to their number, among them than among the whites. 1 have had as much to do with their education and their care as any white man in this country, and I have generally found them willing to work ; willing to abide by the laws, even though they are oppressive; willing to go to school and get an education to whatever extent is possible. I should not hesitate to advise any community to weJtome them, or hesitate to advise them to go to any community or any State, Indiana included. Os course they vote the Republican ticket; I am very glad they do; I hope they always will; I have, and I always expect to. To whatever part of the country they may go, I hope they will continue to vote the Republican ticket, because it is in the interests of their race, and in the interests of the country at large— in the interests of a higher civilization. Hence I have no hesitation in Baying that I should advise

proof. GENERAL CONWAY’S MISSION AND TESTIMONY. Other results, however, beside the formation of secret emigrant aid societies immediately followed the speech of the Senator from Minnesota. In tho cuiirse of that speech the Senator quoted from and complimented Rev. General Thomas W. Conway, who s. ems from his mixed title to have handled the weapons of both spiritual and temporal warfare. And who is General Conway? The Senator, not content with quoting him as high authority here in tho Senate, called him as a witness before the exodus committee. We there learned the history of his connection witli the affairs of tho negro race. I road from his testimony before the committee: Question. Will you please state what your connection has been with the education of the colored race, or your opportunities for knowing its condition generally? A. 1 was commissioner of tho Freedmen’s Bureau by appointment of the President. I was superintendent of the Department of the Gulf, under General Banks, in 1864; and when the bureau was organized in 1865 I was appointed commissioner for Louisiana, and also Alabama until General Swayne was appointed for that State; then I remained commissioner for Louisiana until 1866. Subsequently I w r as State superintendent of education for that State. Q. For how long a time? A, For five years; up to 1872. Q." Did you live there in 1872? A. I lived there in 1872. 1 was there from ISb’* to 1863, ten years. I went there as an officer of the army. I became ideutified with the interests of tno colored people in that way, and am uow, and expect to be for some time to come. In point of fact General Conway is recognized as one of tho most prominent men in tlio country connected with the agitation and promotion of negro emigration. When before the committee he stated that he was then on his way “to New Mexico to pioneer for about one hundred thousand ot these people who are coming out of the South this spring and summer with means to buy land in their own behalf.” Bearing General Conway’s conspicuous position on 1 his subject in mind, let us next see what his movements were almost immediately upon the delivery of the speech of February 7, 1879, by the Senator from Minnesota. Within less than a month afterward General Conway reached this city for consultation with t he leaders of the republican party in regard to the the negro exodus. He states in his testimony that he especially consulted the late Senator Chandler, who was at that time the very able chairman of the republican national committee. No one will dispute that Mr. Chandler, when alive, and in that position, dictated and shaped the policy and political management ofhis party more tha t any other man in it. General Conway says that lie warmly and enthusiastically embraced the exodus movement, thus giving it the full and cordial approval and support of the official head of the republican party. Thus equipped and strengthened in his iaith and purposes General Conway tells us that he Hal ted South byway of the West. Let it be remembered that this was in March, 1879, at least six months before negroes commenced to arrive in Indiana, and