Ohio History Journal

26                                                  OHIO HISTORY

tain research materials through the good will of W. E. A. Axon of England,

one of the editors of the Manchester Guardian. This enabled him to prepare

his first philological paper, "The Theory and Function of the Thematic Vowel

in the Greek Verb," presented at Dartmouth College, July 8, 1884.2 He had

journeyed there from the Cambridge, Massachusetts, area on a special car

with Professor William W. Goodwin of Harvard, president of the philo-

logical association; Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb of Glasgow University,

who had just given the commencement address at Harvard; and other classi-

cal scholars.³ At Hanover, New Hampshire, seat of Dartmouth College, he

was the guest of Henry E. Parker, professor of Latin languages and litera-

ture, as were professors William Dwight Whitney of Yale, Thomas D. Sey-

mour of Yale, and Tracy Peck of Yale. Scarborough was flattered by two

incidents, a call from a Dartmouth student who told him that he had used

the Scarborough text at Kimball Union Academy, and an invitation to a

reception for members of the association at the spacious summer home of

Herman Hitchcock, part owner of the Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York City.

The meeting closed with a trip over Lake Memphremagog in Canada. Scar-

borough believed that the meetings had opened to him "a new world of

thought and endeavor," bringing to him inspiration and intellectual com-

radeship.

At the meeting of the association at Yale in July 1885 he read a paper,

"Fatalism in Homer and Virgil.^"4 In July 1886 he attended the annual

meeting at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, and that of July 1887

at the University of Vermont, Burlington.⁵

At the time of his election to the philological association, only two Negroes

had received such recognition--Dr. E. W. Blyden, an African scholar and

linguist, in 1880, and Professor R. T. Greener in 1881. During the next

generation few American Negroes were to pursue advanced classical studies,

much to Scarborough's regret.

In the meantime, Scarborough had been elected to the Modern Language

Association and to the American Spelling Reform Association. In 1888 and

1889 he contributed to Education three discussions of problems arising in

"The Teaching of the Classical Language." One was based on the interpre-

tation of ancipiti in Caesar's Gallic Wars.⁶ Another was "On the Accent and

Meaning of Arbutus."⁷ The third was "Observations on the Fourth Eclogue

of Virgil."⁸ The last of these had been prepared for presentation to the

American Philological Association meeting at Amherst College in 1888.

Since Scarborough had been unable to attend, the paper had been read by

Professor L. H. Elwell, professor of Greek and Sanscrit at Amherst. In

WILLIAM SANDERS SCARBOROUGH                                     27

July 1889 Scarborough had journeyed to Lafayette College to present a

paper on "Notes on Andocides."⁹

At the American Philological Association meeting at Norwich Free Acad-

emy, Norwich, Connecticut, in July 1890, a paper by Scarborough on "The

Negro Element in Fiction" was read by title only, because of the author's

absence, but a summary was printed in the Transactions of the association.10

In July 1891, at the meeting of the association in Princeton, New Jersey, in

a discussion of "Bellerophon's Letters," he sought to show that the art of

writing was not wholly unknown in Homeric times, and that the word semata,

in relation to these records, might, aside from its ordinary meaning (of

signs), also express the idea of written characters, these epigramma being

real alphabetical characters. Because of the lateness of the hour at the meet-

ing, his paper was presented by title only but was printed in the publica-

tion of the association.11 In spite of the loss of his professorship in 1892, he

and his wife strove to maintain his professional contacts. Early in that year

he had published an article discussing aspects of historical interpretation

found in Grote's History of Greece.12 During the next year a paper on the

"Chronological Order of Plato's Writings," originally presented to the

American Philological Association meeting at the University of Virginia in

July, was published in Education.13 At the meeting of the association in

Chicago in July 1893, he read a paper on Plautus.14 When he journeyed to

Williams College in Massachusetts in July 1894, to attend the meeting of

the philological association, Scarborough arrived at midnight across the

river from the college. His color caused him to be turned away from hotel

accommodations, so he had to spend the night in a railroad tool shed. At

the meeting he read a paper showing that in Greek and Latin the words

conveying the ideas of the three daily meals, breakfast, dinner, and supper,

had variable meanings under different circumstances.15

At the meeting of the association in Cleveland in July 1895, he presented

a paper on "The Languages of Africa."¹⁶ Similarly, at the annual meeting at

Providence, Rhode Island, in July 1896, he discussed "The Functions of

Modern Languages in Africa."17 Two years later, at the regular meeting of

the association in Hartford, Connecticut, in July 1898, he offered a paper,

"Iphigenia in Euripides and Racine." It was read by title only and was

later published in the proceedings of the organization.18 Afterwards, in ex-

panded form, it was published in Education as two articles dealing with

"One Heroine--Three Poets: Iphigenia As She Is Depicted by Euripides,

Racine, and Goethe."19

He also attended the annual meeting of the association at Union College,

28                                                  OHIO HISTORY

Schenectady, New York, in July 1902, and read a paper on the use of certain

words in Demosthenes' De Corona.²⁰ Because of his limited financial re-

sources he cut short his stay at the meeting, but in spite of the drain on his

personal funds, he attended the next annual meeting at Yale University in

July 1903. There he read a paper entitled "Notes on Andocides and the

Authorship of the Oration Against Alcibiades."²¹

In January 1907 he attended a joint meeting of the eastern section of the

philological association and the Archaeological Institute at Washington, D.C.

There he read a paper on "Notes on Thucydides--Kateklasan," in which he

took exception to the translation made by an English editor.22 In December

of the same year he offered a paper which was read by title only at the

annual meeting of the association in Chicago. It dealt with "The Greeks and

Suicide," and a summary of it was published.23

He prepared a paper on "Notes on Disputed Passages in Cicero's Letters"

for the annual association meeting at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore,

December 1909.24 The local committee on arrangements belatedly found

that the headquarters hotel would not serve dinner to Negro members of the

association, so he did not make the trip to Baltimore, and his paper was

read by title only.

In December 1911 he attended the annual meeting of the association at

Pittsburgh.25 There he stopped at the Schenley House, a hotel which had

previously accepted only one Negro guest--Booker T. Washington. A year

later he attended the joint meeting of the association and the Archaeological

Institute at George Washington University and at the Shoreham Hotel.26 He

was the house guest of friends but attended a smoker at the hotel and a re-

ception at the home of Mrs. Charles Foster, widow of an Ohio governor and

cabinet officer under Harrison. He met Edward Everett Hale, then chaplain

of the United States Senate, who had been an early trustee of Wilberforce.

In December 1913 he went to Harvard to the association meeting, but for

some reason the program did not include the paper on the word semeion

which he had prepared for presentation.27 Duties at Wilberforce commanded

his attention so that he did not attend the national philological meetings in

1914 and 1915 but went to St. Louis for the sessions in 1916.28 In 1921 he

journeyed to England and represented the American Philological Association

at the Classical Association meeting at Cambridge University.

Thus over a period of almost forty years Scarborough eagerly and even

aggressively pursued his efforts in the field of classical philology. He, more-

over, was also active both as a writer and a public speaker in the further-

ance of improved race relations. He had performed some service in this re-

30                                                  OHIO HISTORY

During this period the noted novelist of Louisiana Creole life, George

W. Cable, became increasingly concerned to secure a constructive airing of

the Negro problem through articles in leading American magazines.33 In

1888 he had asked Bishop B. T. Tanner to recommend the best qualified

persons for such a task. As a result, Scarborough contributed an article to

the Forum, March 1889, on "The Future of the Negro." He contended that

the South feared "not condition, but color; not loss of 'political integrity,'

but of political power" and that, if the South did not produce a settlement of

these problems, the Negro would have to leave the South.34 Scarborough also

contributed articles on the Negro question to the New York Tribune and

other papers.

During these years Booker T. Washington, with his program of industrial

education at Tuskegee Institute strongly supported by leading philanthro-

pists, was receiving wide acclaim. Some earnest advocates of Negro rights

believed that, by his emphasis on the manual arts, Washington was really

aiding the cause of southern conservatives. During 1890 various views of

the American Negro's prospects were aired in another leading periodical,

the Arena. William C. P. Breckinridge, congressman from Kentucky, de-

nounced outside interference in working out a solution to the "Race Ques-

tion."³⁵ Senator Wade Hampton of South Carolina, in another article,36 even

indicated what he thought were the merits of "revoking Negro citizenship,"

but deeming such a course impracticable, he contemplated the desirability of

deporting the Negroes by voluntary consent.37 Scarborough, writing in the

same magazine, contended that the Negro problem was really the white

man's problem, for the white man, not the Negro, asserted claims of race

supremacy. Scarborough held that the solution for North and South, white

and black, was to unite on principles of justice and humanity.38

During the next year he contributed another article to the Arena on "The

Negro Question from the Negro's Point of View." He maintained that the

white man did not understand the Negro and that some white writers tried

to show the Negro to be incapable of self-government or advanced education,

a viewpoint which Scarborough deemed "preposterous."³⁹ Some years later

he developed his views further in an article in the Forum on "The Educated

Negro and Menial Pursuits." He raised the question why the Negro should

be given "a pick instead of Greek and Latin." His answer was that life

should be ennobled for the Negro as well as for the white man, even in

menial positions, hence all avenues of life's higher activities should be

opened to him.⁴⁰ He elaborated further on this viewpoint in an article in

Education in January 1900. Asserting that Booker T. Washington served

WILLIAM SANDERS SCARBOROUGH                                      31

as "a needed leader" in Negro industrial education, he added, "But this

is not saying that because of his success in this line all the race must run mad

over industrial education."41

Scarborough expressed similar views in a review of Washington's The

Future of the American Negro (Boston, 1899) for the Annals of the Amer-

ican Academy of Political and Social Science.⁴² Thus, at least a distinct

difference in emphasis between the two trends of Negro education was indi-

cated.⁴³ Yet Scarborough and Washington remained good friends, and their

differences may have been in part a question of the best method of dealing

publicly with the race problem, when any ideal solution was beyond the

range of immediate fulfilment.⁴⁴

As we have seen, Scarborough's interests in race matters were sometimes

closely intertwined with his linguistic concerns. Another example of this

was when, on his first visit to Hampton Institute in Virginia, he presented, at

a conference there, a paper on "The Negro in Fiction as Portrayer and Por-

trayed." In this he took issue with the way in which the Negro dialect was

being presented in the current books of the time.⁴⁵

In May 1891 he had unexpectedly become the subject of a controversy

over race discrimination when, without informing him, his Oberlin class-

mate, W. H. Tibbals, then a professor at Park College, Missouri, presented

his name for membership in the Western Authors and Artists Club in Kansas

City, Missouri. Tibbals pointed out Scarborough's contributions to national

magazines and to the field of philology, but after heated discussion, admis-

sion was denied to Scarborough. Some believed that the incident was a

scheme to use a prominent Negro to advertise a little-known organization,

but Tibbals wrote that he did it "to test the Club."⁴⁶

Negro leaders wished that their race might receive proper attention at

various world expositions, including the World's Columbian Exposition in

Chicago in 1893. Thereupon, a World's Congress Committee was established,

and eventually an Ethnological Congress was held in connection with the

exposition. Scarborough was active in the deliberations which led to the

holding of the congress. Once again his racial, philological, and ecclesias-

tical interests intertwined, as he was asked to prepare a paper on the "Func-

tion and Future of Foreign Languages in Africa," to show what would be

the effect of modern European languages upon native African tongues. He

consulted competent authorities in the preparation of the paper, which was

of interest to those concerned with the missionary movement and which was

later published in the Methodist Review.47

Scarborough had also participated in the interfaith parley, the Parlia-

32                                                   OHIO HISTORY

ment of Religions at the Columbian Exposition.⁴⁸ There he read a paper

prepared by Bishop Tanner, who was absent because of illness, on "Afro-

American Journalism." The exposition brought new opportunities to Scar-

borough, as he became acquainted with Heli Chatelain, the French explorer,

and Paul Laurence Dunbar, who was then seeking the publication of his

poems. He also had further contacts with Frederick Douglass and was once

more impressed by "his massive frame, leonic head, firm tread."

Following the same line of interwoven interests in 1897, he contributed

an article, "Negro Folk-Lore and Dialect," to the Arena.⁴⁹ Dealing with

broader themes in the same journal in 1900, he contended that much of the

lawlessness among Negroes could be explained by the attitude of whites

toward them. He elaborated:

When the American people, North and South, come to realize the fact that

violence begets violence, and that no people can be safe where law is ignored or

disregarded on the merest pretense, then perhaps we may look for a better state

of things than can possibly exist under present conditions.50

In 1901 Scarborough made a trip abroad, and upon his return he hastened

to Ohio, for he was scheduled to attend a meeting of the Afro-American

League of Ohio, of which he was president. The organization had been estab-

lished to advance Negro rights. Just then it was striving to prevent Jim Crow

railroad cars from entering Cincinnati from Kentucky. The effort was suc-

cessful, with the assistance of legal advisors, of whom Senator Joseph B.

Foraker was the most influential.

Scarborough contributed to the Manchester Guardian, the London Times,

and various African publications, including Izwi-La-bantu, "The Voice of the

People," a Cape Colony paper. Scarborough joined William E. B. Du Bois,

the aggressive Negro leader, in presenting arguments in the latter paper that

were at variance with the principles of Booker T. Washington.

With the expansion of the United States into Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and

the Philippines, he insisted that new fields were being opened in those areas,

where, for example, the Negro might be used as a teacher. He, moreover,

continued to contend that Negro education should not be limited to industrial

training, for only through higher education could the Negro achieve the

highest honor and respect.51

He gave talks during this period at Hampton Institute on "The Negro as

a Factor in Business," "The Negro's Duty to Himself," and "Co-operative

Essentials to Race Unity." He also went to Boston to make an address on

"The Negro Scholar and His Mission." In the summer of 1902 he spoke

34                                                     OHIO HISTORY

before an educational mass meeting in Columbus, Ohio, on the question,

"What Is the Colored Race Doing to Advance Itself Educationally and What

Does It Contribute Yearly in a Financial Way to the School Fund?" In

April 1904 he addressed a meeting in Baltimore of the presidents and other

representatives of the agricultural and mechanical schools devoted to Negro

education, speaking on "The Negro College." In August he spoke before

the Negro Teachers of the United States, meeting at Nashville. In May 1906

he went to Tuskegee Institute for the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of

the founding of the school.52 In July he gave the commencement address at

Kentucky Normal and Industrial Institute, and he also went to Detroit to

address the National Afro-American Council on the subject, "How Shall We

Reach and Improve the Criminal Classes?"53

In late July and in August he was in the East, taking part in the program

of the Negro Young People's Christian and Educational Congress in Wash-

ington, D.C., and speaking before the Educational and Ministerial Chautau-

qua in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and at "Mother Bethel" A.M.E. Church in

Philadelphia.

During this period Ray Stannard Baker visited Wilberforce to gather ma-

terial for a series of articles to appear in the American Magazine on the race

question in the United States.54 These were later brought together in the

volume, Following the Color Line. Scarborough reacted somewhat unfavor-

ably to the author's appraisals, writing later in his autobiography:

Like many others who seek to know race life from the inside in a few hours'

visitation, he failed to get fully into the heart of things, generalizing from too

few particulars, and like many who interview our people he learned only what

the few interviewed chose that he should learn. When the Negro chooses he can

be as non-committal as any race.

Scarborough was persuaded to deliver the commencement address at

Atlanta University, May 28, 1908, speaking on "The Mission of the Negro

Graduate." As Atlanta University's first graduate, he indulged in poignant

reminiscences. Then he discussed "Education and Usefulness," "Acquire-

ments Expected," the "Mission and Boundless Opportunity for Service," the

"Importance of Versatility," and the "Need for Toil and Sacrifice." His

closing remarks included the charge:

Go forth with a fixed determination that you will make your service tell on

your day and generation. Act wisely, cultivate tolerance and forebearance, while

not abating your manliness; make friends, but do your duty regardless of ene-

mies; teach all duties and condemn all vices.

WILLIAM SANDERS SCARBOROUGH                                      35

In February 1909 he gave the oration in Brooklyn, New York, at a celebra-

tion arranged by Negro citizens in honor of the centennial of the birth of

Abraham Lincoln. Later in the year he was the orator of the day at the un-

veiling of a monument to Paul Laurence Dunbar in Woodlawn Cemetery,

Dayton, Ohio.

In March 1910 he went to Nashville for the inauguration of President

George A. Gates at Fisk University. After commencement of the next year

his wife and he made their second trip abroad, this time to attend the First

Universal Races Congress at the University of London during the last week

of July. The meetings were aimed at fostering better race relations through-

out the world.⁵⁵ With various other delegates they sailed on the Carmania

and were delighted to meet on the boat Albert Bigelow Paine, Mark Twain's

biographer, and other notables. Leaving the boat at the new port, Fishguard,

they journeyed to London through Wales and again stopped at the palatial

St. Ermin's Hotel. At the meetings of the congress sixty-two nationalities

were represented. Distinguished scholars took part in emphasizing the unity

of the human race. A former president of Haiti presided at the session at

which Scarborough addressed the congress on "The Color Question in the

United States." Receptions in London, luncheon and tea at Warwick Castle,

and a day at Cambridge University were followed by a short trip to the

continent. Sightseeing in Paris and a boat trip from Cologne to Strassburg

brought fearsome impressions of the extent to which the war spirit was in

the air following the Algeciras incident.

Returning to London, they found Victoria Station deserted because of the

great strike. Visiting for some days in the suburbs and in Manchester, at

last they sailed from Liverpool, once again on the Carmania. At Halifax,

where recoaling became necessary, some damage was done to the vessel in

entering the small harbor, but after several days' delay, the ship proceeded

to New York.

Early in 1912 he contributed an article to the African Times and Orient

Review. In July he went as a delegate to the Negro National Educational

Conference in St. Paul by appointment of Governor Judson Harmon. In

September he attended the congress held in Philadelphia under the auspices

of the Emancipation Commission of Pennsylvania. In December he went to

the inauguration of Dr. Stephen Newman as president of Howard University

and was one of five university presidents to deliver an address at the trustees'

reception.

In 1914 he lectured in Boston before a Negro society, the St. Mark

Musical and Literary Union. In August of that year he gave the address of

36                                                    OHIO HISTORY

welcome to five hundred persons in attendance at the Colored Women's Fed-

eration at Wilberforce. In September he went to Passaic, New Jersey, to

lecture on "Education" at the Bethel A.M.E. Church.

In 1915 he was a delegate from Ohio to a meeting in Chicago celebrating

the Half Century Anniversary of Freedom. During the summer he journeyed

to California, where he was given a rousing reception by the Los Angeles

branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

In the summer of the next year, following the death of William Hayes

Ward, the founding editor of the Independent, Scarborough was asked by

Hamilton Holt, the editor, to join Washington Gladden, Bliss Carman, and

others in tributes to Ward. Asked to give an appreciation of Ward's devotion

to the Negro, Scarborough wrote in part:

Proscription, segregation, mob violence, lynchings, denial of vote, all race

distinctions, all the thousand and one indignities, persecutions and cruelties and

crimes against the negro wherever practised, have found in him one who de-

nounced vigorously and unsparingly all such as unlawful, unjust, unchristian

and inhuman. His work did not stop with his strenuous endeavors to right the

wrongs done the negro, but he maintained that the education of the race should

be of the highest type; . . . and encouraged all its ambitions and aspirations as

a people.56

Late in the year, Scarborough went to Durham, North Carolina, to a con-

ference on the "Progress of Negro Education." Held at Professor W. G.

Pearson's Training School the conference included in its program an address

by Scarborough on "What Should Be the Standard of the University, College,

Normal School, Teacher Training and Secondary Schools?"

As president of Wilberforce, Scarborough encouraged friendly relations

between the races, so an athletic team from the Chinese University at Hono-

lulu was invited to play at Wilberforce. Although having a record of sixty-

five consecutive victories, the Chinese team was defeated at Wilberforce.

Scarborough later recalled that Wilberforce teams often played against

white teams "with the best of good feeling." During this period he accepted

membership on a Provisional Jewish Committee, concerned with stamping out

racial injustice and persecutions.

Almost on the eve of the entry of the United States into World War I,

Scarborough journeyed to Washington, D.C., where he participated in the

fiftieth anniversary celebration of the founding of Howard University.⁵⁷

In July 1917 he addressed the Association of Teachers of Colored Schools

at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, on "Negro Colleges and the War," and in

the fall he went as a delegate, appointed by Governor James M. Cox of Ohio,

WILLIAM SANDERS SCARBOROUGH                                          37

to the Negro National Educational Congress in New York City. During the

first half of 1918, as a prominent Negro leader, he attended a wide variety

of meetings, where he was sometimes the speaker, in Washington, D.C.,

Philadelphia, and Columbus, and in Kentucky at Frankfort, Lexington, and

Harrodsburg.

During the war Scarborough was not inarticulate, as he felt that an injus-

tice had been done to numerous Negro servicemen in the lamentable delay

in the delivery of officers' commissions to them. He reacted vigorously also

when, upon demobilization, Negro soldiers often experienced fresh evidences

of intolerance.

After the war came to an end, a repressive spirit of nationalism and racism

expressed itself. In Ohio, some had endeavored to put new restrictive "Black

Laws" on the statute books, and a revived Ku Klux Klan incited hatred.58

Scarborough, as a noted representative of Negro Americans, spoke out in

defense of them. He asserted, in part:

There is but one remedy for race riots, and that is justice--a willingness to

accord to every man his rights--civil and political.

The Negro is law-abiding and only occasionally shows a retaliatory spirit....

Negroes are not rioters, but can be made so. It is a heavy burden they carry.59

As will be discussed later, in the fall of 1921 Scarborough went to

Europe to the Methodist ecumenical conference. While in Great Britain

he told a reporter on one occasion:

We [Negroes], like other peoples, have our radicals. We have those who believe

in force as a means of progress. I am not among these. Interracial, like interna-

tional, questions, I think, must be settled, if ever really settled, not by violence,

but by reason....

In the principle of Africa for Africans I believe, but . . . I am convinced that

any progress toward realization of the ideal of Africa for the Africans can be

achieved only slowly and by the use of the weapons of mind and soul.

Later, as will be discussed subsequently, Scarborough contributed to an

understanding of Negro problems as he worked in the United States Depart-

ment of Agriculture. Now, however, we turn our attention to his long and

diversified efforts as a leader in one of the largest denominations of Negroes

in the United States, the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

In December 1882 the Sunday School Union of the African Methodist

Episcopal Church was established, and Scarborough became a contributing

editor to its publications. In addition to the denominational paper the Chris-

tian Recorder, the A.M.E. Review was also established in order to develop

30                                                 OHIO HISTORY

literary expression in the denomination. Scarborough contributed an article

on "The Greek of the New Testament" to the first issue.60 Later, he was the

author of several articles--"On Fatalism in Homer and Virgil" (previously

read at Yale University),61 "The New College Fetich" (electives as a detri-

ment to the study of the classics),62 and "The Roman Cena"63--and a review

of Bishop Benjamin T. Tanner's Dispensations in the History of the Church.64

During the 1890's with the establishment of the Payne Theological Semi-

nary, the faculty of the school was used to prepare the Sunday School

teachers' guide to the International Sunday School lessons. Called the A.M.E.

Zion Quarterly and published at Nashville, Tennessee, it was a booklet of

about thirty-six pages. At first the work was done by President Samuel T.

Mitchell, Professor C. W. Prioleau, and Scarborough, but Mitchell soon

turned his part of the work over to Scarborough, as did Prioleau also when

he resigned from the faculty in 1895 (later becoming a United States Army

chaplain).

As an A.M.E. churchman, Scarborough, along with Bishop Arnett and

others, was a delegate to the Third Methodist Ecumenical Conference in

London in 1901.65 Negro transatlantic travelers then seemed to be something

of a novelty. Sailing from New York, they landed at Queenstown and pro-

ceeded to Liverpool. There they were assisted by James Boyle, American

consul, who had been well known to Scarborough and Arnett when he had

been secretary to President McKinley. Going on to London, they were met

by Bishop Tanner's son, the artist Henry Ossawa Tanner, who had come over

from Paris.66

Having decided upon a trip to Rome before the conference opened, they

crossed the English channel to Dieppe. Many passengers became seasick,

but Professor and Mrs. Scarborough stood on the narrow deck passage and

faced the waves throughout the trip. After a pleasant trip through Normandy

they stopped at the Grand Hotel in Paris. The younger Tanner conducted

them on a sightseeing tour, and they visited the Louvre, where one of his

paintings was on exhibition. They visited Tanner's own studio in the Latin

Quarter. In view of his specilization in Biblical scenes, Tanner had pur-

chased, at the death of the noted Hungarian painter Mihaly Munkacsy, all

of his Oriental costumes.67

In Paris and throughout Italy no race discrimination was noted in the

hotels, cafes, and concert halls. Scarborough later commented, "Even the

American tourists there took only a languid interest in our pigmentation, and

a young man from New Hampshire greeted us in Switzerland as long lost

relatives so happy was he to hear the sound of our English tongue." From

WILLIAM SANDERS SCARBOROUGH                                    39

Paris the Scarboroughs with Bishop W. B. Derrick traveled through southern

France and through the Mont Cenis tunnel to Turin and Rome. Everywhere

Scarborough's interest in both the classical and the Christian traditions was

excited by the many monuments of ancient culture.

When they returned to London they found that some Americans at their

hotel had demanded that the Negro guests be ejected, but the manager

refused to comply.

At the ecumenical conference every phase of the ecclesiastical and social

work of Methodism was discussed. One morning the delegates heard the

startling news of the assassination of President McKinley.

After the conference, sightseeing tours of England and Scotland were fol-

lowed by a journey to Manchester and Liverpool. Then they sailed for New

York on the Cunard liner Umbria.

Scarborough's relations with the African Methodist Episcopal Church were

closely associated from 1908 to 1920 with his duties as president of a

church-affiliated university, Wilberforce. Thus, in January 1912, he jour-

neyed to Atlanta to pay his respects at the funeral of his lifelong friend

Bishop Wesley J. Gaines. Several years later he returned to Atlanta for the

inauguration of Dr. Philip M. Watters as president of Gammon Theological

Seminary. His duties involved attendance at general conferences of the

African Methodist Episcopal Church, including that held in Philadelphia

in 1916.

In December 1919 he participated in a meeting of the Interchurch World

Movement in New York City. In 1921 he was one of a group of Negro Amer-

icans to go to Europe to attend another Methodist ecumenical conference,

meeting in September. He, however, went in advance of the rest of the party,

for he was to represent the American Philological Association at a meeting

in Cambridge, England. At the last minute Mrs. Scarborough could not ac-

company him, owing to illness in her family. He sailed July 16, on the

Carmania, on which his wife and he had sailed in 1911. The voyage was

rather lonely for him this time, but he found companionship with another

lonely individual, a young Japanese chemist en route to enter business in

Bombay. Having arrived at Liverpool on July 23, he took a train for Edin-

burgh. He spent a day in the lovely highland lake country.

At the end of July he was in London, stopping at the Hotel Cecil. Then he

went to the meeting at Cambridge, that of Anglo-American classicists. A wide

variety of scholarly papers, concerts, a visit to Ely Cathedral, and a number

of receptions occupied his time for some days. He then revisited Oxford and

went on to Stratford-on-Avon. On August 18, with other delegates, he went to

40                                                  OHIO HISTORY

Southampton and across the channel to Cherbourg, where he met those who

were arriving to attend the Methodist conference. Going on to Paris, they

visited Versailles, made a tour of the war zone, and saw the war-damaged

Rheims Cathedral. Going by train to Rome, they later visited Florence,

Venice, and Milan. Returning by way of Switzerland to Paris, they went on

to Brussels and the Waterloo battlefield. Reaching Ostend, they crossed the

channel and went on to London by rail.

There, on September 6, the ecumenical conference opened in City Roads

Chapel, with later general sessions in the new Central Hall. The emphasis

was on brotherhood. One Sunday Scarborough addressed two church meet-

ings.

After the conference he visited friends in Paris and returned to London

before sailing from Southampton, October 21, on the Adriatic. The voyage

was without noteworthy incident, and he proceeded then by rail to his home

in Ohio.

We now turn to a consideration of Scarborough's influential career in the

field of politics. As a young man he had been a delegate to the Republican

state convention at Atlanta. As he settled down at Wilberforce to become an

influential Negro leader, he soon took an important part in providing guid-

ance for the Negro constituency in the Republican party in Ohio. In 1879

he had actively sought the gubernatorial nomination for Alphonso Taft of

Cincinnati when the position had gone to Charles Foster of Fostoria, who was

elected.68 During this period much dissatisfaction existed among the Negroes

of Ohio with the attitude of the Republican party toward Negro rights.69 Scar-

borough made an address on "Our Political Status" at an interstate Negro

convention in Pittsburgh, decrying the way in which Negro rights were being

trampled under foot.70 Recalling the Civil War heroism of the Negro at Fort

Wagner, Milliken's Bend, Port Hudson, and Fort Pillow, he appealed for

full civil and political rights for the colored man. He regretted the supine

attitude of conciliation on the part of the Republican party, but saw no hope

for the Negro in supporting independents or the Democrats. He called upon

his race to present "a united front" and urged the presentation of a compre-

hensive petition of its grievances to the Republican national convention at

Chicago in June 1884. He denounced prejudice that could not rise above the

"infamous color-line" and advocated mixed churches and integration in

other phases of American life.71

At the Republican national convention of 1884 the Negro's strength was

recognized by the choice of John R. Lynch, a prominent Mississippi Negro,

over Senator Powell Clayton, a white man from Arkansas, as temporary

WILLIAM SANDERS SCARBOROUGH                                    41

chairman.⁷² In the convention Scarborough believed that Foraker was

thoroughly loyal to Senator John Sherman. Scarborough had written an arti-

cle for the Chicago Tribune favoring Sherman, but that paper refused to

print it, for it deemed "Sherman the very man whose nomination would place

the Republicans on the defensive and keep them there until the election is

over." Whitelaw Reid apparently held similar views, for he wrote Scar-

borough after Cleveland's election in 1884 that he considered that Blaine

was "our best candidate and had no doubt that he would have been elected

by a handsome majority, but for the Burchard Incident. . . . I should have

been perfectly satisfied, however, with Sherman as a candidate, but would

have expected a harder contest for him in New York than we had with

Blaine." In this campaign Scarborough used his utmost efforts for Blaine.73

During the gubernatorial campaign of 1885 in Ohio, the Republicans de-

manded a "free ballot and fair count." Foraker, again running for the gov-

ernorship (after his defeat of 1883), spoke in June at Wilberforce, denying

charges that he was unfavorable to the Negro. Protesting against limiting

the Negro to utilitarian activities, he asserted that "nothing was so well cal-

culated to strengthen the mind and give one the power of analysis as a

study of ancient languages." Scarborough believed that Foraker's election

in 1885 "was a fortunate event for the race," in spite of the favorable atti-

tude toward the Negro of George Hoadly, the Democratic nominee.74

On February 13, 1888, Scarborough was the only Negro among twelve

speakers who responded to toasts at the first Lincoln Day banquet of the

Ohio Republican League, an occasion arranged to help create political en-

thusiasm in the state.⁷⁵ Scarborough responded to the toast, "Why I am a

Republican." He declared that among other reasons he adhered to the party

of Lincoln "because to make political alliance elsewhere would be to prove

myself the veriest ingrate that ever trod this green earth, the meanest pol-

troon that ever exhibited his moral weakness to the gaze of the public--

deserved to be hissed and spit upon by those I had deserted, and treated like

a fawning cur."76

Scarborough's success on this occasion led to his going to Chicago to

work for the nomination of John Sherman for the presidency. Scarborough

later asserted that he believed that Foraker "stood by Sherman loyally and

faithfully as long as possible; and turned to Harrison only when the use-

lessness of continued support of Ohio's first choice was plainly evident."

Scarborough felt that his own course was much the same. Earlier he had

always found Sherman "approachable and sympathetic," but after the con-

vention he "noticed a perceptible coolness in his friendship."

42                                                  OHIO HISTORY

Following the nomination of Harrison, it was widely believed that the

Negro vote might be decisive in the campaign. At first it was thought that a

Negro convention would best serve to rally the Negro voters, but finally an

"Address to Colored Citizens," signed by well-known Negro citizens was

deemed the best way to influence the largest number of voters. In response

to a letter from Frederick Douglass, dated Cedar Hill, Anacostia, D.C.,

September 8, 1888, Scarborough visited Douglass, and the two prepared a

five-column appeal to Negro voters, which was signed by prominent Negro

leaders and was widely distributed before the election.⁷⁷ Scarborough exerted

strong personal efforts during the campaign, and after the election received

a personal letter of thanks from Harrison.⁷⁸

At the second annual banquet of the Ohio Republican League in Columbus,

February 12, 1889, Scarborough substituted for the distinguished John H.

Langston, who had been scheduled to respond to the toast, "The Colored

Man in Politics."⁷⁹

Scarborough's political activities had brought him into close touch with

political leaders of both parties in Ohio, among them William McKinley,

Benjamin Butterworth, Charles H. Grosvenor, Joseph Warren Keifer, Asa

Bushnell, Charles Kurtz, and Judson Harmon. He had been especially close

to Governor Foraker, who believed that his own defeat for a third term was

due to the fact that "he had gone to the well once too often." To some extent

Scarborough felt that he had gone down politically with Foraker's defeat,

and he began to give more time to his literary work and to the advancement

of Wilberforce.

Yet he had developed a growing ambition and, to some extent, a desire

for a change and looked to Haiti with its language and folklore as a field

for the philologist. His Republican connections prompted him to seek the

post of minister to Haiti, following Frederick Douglass' retirement in 1891.80

Foraker dispatched highly complimentary letters of endorsement to Presi-

dent Harrison and to Secretary of State James G. Blaine. To the latter, he

wrote in part: "Professor Scarborough is one of the best representatives of

his race in point of ability and character that I have ever known." Scar-

borough personally called on the new postmaster general, John Wanamaker

of Philadelphia, who, it was later revealed, was supporting John S. Dunham,

a Negro of his home city, for the position. Wanamaker endeavored to dis-

courage Scarborough in his quest by voicing his belief that the coveted ap-

pointment would offer far less opportunity than he had as an educator of

youth, a view similar to that taken by some others. There were, at any rate,

geographical as well as political impediments to Scarborough's appointment.

WILLIAM SANDERS SCARBOROUGH                                    43

At first, Blaine, who wanted a white man in the position, objected to Dunham

as too young and too inexperienced, but eventually he came to believe that

the appointment would save Harrison "the annoyance of a half hundred

colored men" in an enraged quarrel for the place.⁸¹ Dunham received the

position. Charles Foster, now secretary of the treasury, suggested that Scar-

borough take the post of Liberian minister or consul general in Santo

Domingo. Scarborough thought these would not contribute to his literary

advancement, as the mission to Haiti would have done, and he declined to

be considered for them.

In the summer of 1892 James S. Clarkson of the Republican national

committee wrote to Scarborough indicating that he was recommending that

he be employed to make ten campaign speeches. Scarborough later asserted

that he had charged $700 for these oratorical efforts.⁸²

In 1897 Scarborough once again sought the Haitian post in the diplomatic

service. In February he went to a Lincoln Day banquet at Zanesville that

was addressed by Booker T. Washington. After it a pilgrimage was made to

call on President-elect McKinley. Washington took the opportunity to urge

the appointment of Scarborough to Haiti. Afterwards, the president-elect

detained Scarborough for a private talk, emphasizing his desire to see Mark

Hanna chosen to Sherman's senatorial seat. But Scarborough did not re-

ceive the Haitian post.⁸³

In the meantime he had taken some part in Republican politics, but was

distressed by the bitter factionalism in the party. He manifested great inter-

est in advancing the political fortunes of Warren C. Harding, who was

elected state senator in 1899, and he campaigned actively for Myron T.

Herrick, who was elected governor in 1903.

In February 1904 he attended the annual Republican Lincoln Day banquet

at the Hotel Hollenden in Cleveland. This being a presidential year, politics

demanded his attention, as his services were again sought by Republican

leaders. By request, in October he sent out "An Appeal to the Colored

Voters," in a circular in which he asserted that the "election was to be by

all odds the most important since the Rebellion." There had been much ado

North and South over the fact that President Roosevelt had entertained

Booker T. Washington at dinner in the White House, October 16, 1901.⁸⁴

Scarborough now called on his fellow Negroes to vote for Roosevelt, "who

had the courage to recognize merit and manhood irrespective of class or con-

dition," and to vote against such men as Congressman J. Thomas Heflin of

Alabama, who allegedly had declared that Roosevelt "should have had a

bomb thrown under his table."

44                                                    OHIO HISTORY

In 1905 he campaigned actively for the reelection of the Republican gov-

ernor, Myron T. Herrick. He told the colored voters that the issue was "not

a local one, not merely a state one, but to all intents and purpose, national

in its scope." But Herrick was defeated by the Democratic candidate, John

M. Pattison.⁸⁵

In January 1907 Scarborough attended a joint meeting of philologists and

archaeologists in Washington, D.C. At this time members of the association

were received by President Roosevelt in the Blue Room of the White House.

Scarborough later recalled:

I was midway in the line. When President Roosevelt saw me his eyes twinkled.

He showed both surprise and delight at my presence in such a body. He greeted

me heartily and asked me to remain, saying he desired to speak with me when

the others had withdrawn. I did so and he asked me to call the following day as

he had something of importance to say to me in regard to the position he had

in mind.

Scarborough later learned that the president had been so impressed by the

Ohioan's presence in such a distinguished body that he sensed the possibility

of appointing him to a high place so as to mollify Negro opinion.

Scarborough, like other Negroes, had recently been most resentful of

Roosevelt's action in dismissing "without honor" 270 Negro infantrymen

because of the so-called Brownsville affair in Texas. But Scarborough did

not have the further interview with the president, for the next morning he

received a letter from Roosevelt's secretary saying that the president would

not take up the matter with Scarborough at least for the time being. Scar-

borough afterwards believed that another Ohioan had indicated that Scar-

borough was an "out and out Foraker man," a fact which would have made

him persona non grata at the time, for Roosevelt and Foraker had contended

violently over the Brownsville affair.86 Scarborough later asserted that his

relations with Foraker were closer than with any other public man of the

time, except Warren C. Harding, and many letters were exchanged between

them on political matters.

Scarborough had been consulted on numerous occasions regarding the

appointment of Negroes by governors of Ohio to positions of responsibility.

Following the death of Governor John M. Pattison in 1905, Lieutenant

Governor Andrew L. Harris succeeded to the post of chief executive. At one

time, Harris sent for Scarborough to help him select a Democrat for the

state board at Wilberforce University. Scarborough suggested Common

Pleas Judge Madison W. Beacom of Cleveland, an Oberlin graduate of the

WILLIAM SANDERS SCARBOROUGH                                    45

class of 1879. Harris asked Scarborough to go to Cleveland to see whether

Beacom would accept, and the result was Beacom's appointment.87

In general in Ohio the Republican party was more closely associated with

the prohibition movement than the Democrats, so in the spring of 1908,

both as a churchman and a Republican, Scarborough was glad to issue an

appeal to Negro citizens of Ohio to vote against home rule on the liquor

question--desired by the saloon interests--and in favor of statewide prohi-

bition. Similarly, in 1916, when Myron T. Herrick, former Republican

governor, sought a senate seat from Ohio, Scarborough issued a special

appeal to the Negro voters in his behalf.

In the meantime, in 1908, when the Republican national campaign opened

in Youngstown, Ohio, Scarborough accepted an invitation to be present.

There he found that the program listed him not only as president of Wilber-

force but with "Reverend" before his name. He was scheduled to give the

invocation and did so, even though he was a layman. Subsequently, he

exerted his best efforts to advance the presidential candidacy of Taft in

that year.

Scarborough was especially active in Republican politics during 1920.

At the Republican national convention in Chicago in June, Frank B. Willis

had made the speech which had placed Harding in nomination. After

Harding's selection as the party standard-bearer, Willis became a candidate

for the senatorial seat occupied by Harding, but Walter F. Brown of Toledo

and R. M. Wanamaker also entered the contest.⁸⁸ Brown was a former "Bull

Mooser" of 1912 and did not have the support of various leaders of the

Republican machine. Maurice Maschke of Cleveland wrote Scarborough in

July, urging him to work in Clark, Creene, and Madison counties "and a

little in Highland," and offering him fifty dollars a week and traveling ex-

penses until the close of the primaries in August.⁸⁹ Willis won the contest.

Scarborough had worked so effectively that Willis wrote him, "You and

your friends certainly rallied to my support in great shape."⁹⁰

In the subsequent race between Willis and the Democratic candidate,

W. A. Julian of Cincinnati, Scarborough again worked vigorously for Willis,

and once again received profuse thanks when Willis won the election.⁹¹ Scar-

borough had campaigned for the Republican ticket as a whole and received

a letter of appreciation from Harry S. New of the Republican national com-

mittee after the close of the campaign.92

Because of his efforts in the campaign and in view of his loss of the

position of president of Wilberforce, Scarborough eagerly sought a govern-

ment appointment in Washington. He was summoned to Washington to report

46                                                     OHIO HISTORY

to the veterans' bureau, but an appointment in that bureau did not material-

ize. Apparently at that time the appointment of a Negro to a responsible

position was fraught with difficulties. Finally, a position at $250 a month

as assistant in farm studies in the department of agriculture was secured

beginning November 1, 1921, and was continued on a three-months basis,

the appointment being renewed at the end of the period.⁹³ His task was to

assist in providing information which, published in bulletins, might aid

Negro farmers. He expressed to President Harding a wish to broaden the

work of the bureau of agricultural economics among Negro farmers of the

country, and the president gave him encouragement.⁹⁴

Henry C. Wallace, secretary of agriculture, was interested in having Scar-

borough's office give a few scientifically trained Negroes positions to enable

them to assist the Negro farmer of the South and to gather scientific data

touching Negro farm life and problems. Scarborough submitted a plan for

carrying out this intention.95 In executing the proposal, Scarborough per-

sonally went among the Negro farmers of rich Southampton County, Vir-

ginia, to aid them to secure help from the Federal Farm Loan Bank. He

now became an authority on the Negro farmer in the South. He was the

author of a brief United States Department of Agriculture monograph, Ten-

ancy and Ownership Among Negro Farmers in Southampton, Virginia.96

In a practical way he was instrumental in securing the admission of Negro

farmers to the Farm Loan Association, from which they had previously been

excluded. He also contributed an article to Current History on "The Negro

Farmer in the South," acknowledging the discouraging situation for the

Negro there but declining to accept Negro migration from the South as an

answer to the problem. He asserted:

The more I visit the congested parts of cities like Cleveland, Chicago, Phila-

delphia, and New York, the more I am convinced that the best place for the

average Negro, if he is a farmer and if he is in any degree successful as such, is

in the farming districts of the south....

The Virginia Negro farmers may be said to belong to a thrifty group. Virtu-

ally all are members of a church and of one or another of the many fraternal

groups among them; and seldom are any of these affiliations neglected. Most of

the Negroes have automobiles and many own victrolas. So the home conditions

improve.97

Shortly after his death, his article on "The Negro Farmer's Progress

in Virginia" was published in Current History. It presented numerous in-

stances and statistics to show their increased wealth, cooperative marketing,

and educational progress, with the conclusion: "These are most encouraging

WILLIAM SANDERS SCARBOROUGH                                     47

examples to set before the rising generation, showing the possibilities resid.

ing in farm ownership and the worth of farm life generally."98

Scarborough came to feel that the failure of officials in Washington to

move further ahead in service to Negro farmers was due to a fear of inte-

gration problems in Washington government offices. Bills in which he was

interested that were intended to create a Negro industrial commission, more-

over, were never reported out of congressional committee.

During his work in Washington he was a regular attendant at Sunday

church services, and occasionally he left the city to make an address at

Tuskegee, Baltimore, or New York. At a meeting of the Republican State

Voters' Association, on the occasion of the "Ohio Night" ceremonies at the

Willard Hotel, he was directed to take the freight elevator but refused to

do so. Later, Republican leaders assured him that a change of location

was being made for other meetings and that there would be "no repetition

of the unfortunate occurrence."

Needing rest, he took a month's vacation at his Ohio home in July

1923. The death of Harding during the next month was a great loss to

Scarborough, who recalled how he had always been warmly welcomed at

the White House. On one occasion he had been ushered into the cabinet room,

where a few members were lingering after a meeting. Harding greeted him

cordially, threw his arm over the visitor's shoulder, and turning to the mem-

bers, said: "I want to introduce Dr. Scarborough to you. Here is a 100 per

cent American."

Scarborough was present when the Harding funeral train reached Wash-

ington from San Francisco and paid a condolence call at the White House.

Not long afterwards he paid his respects to the new president, Calvin

Coolidge. Harding had definitely been Scarborough's patron, and although

Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty, Register of the Treasury H. H.

Speelman, and Senators Fess and Willis were interested in his continued

government service, his work in the capital ended, December 31, 1923.⁹⁹

Returning to Ohio in December, he gradually adjusted himself to

retirement at home, although he was discouraged about the Wilberforce

situation. Governor Vic Donahey tried to console him, writing in July 1924:

"I hope that things at Wilberforce are not as bad as you think. I have

always tried to do what I could to aid the institution."¹⁰⁰ By this time the

campaign of 1924 was getting under way and Scarborough worked ener-

getically for Coolidge's success.

In 1925 he was among those protesting against the exhibition of the

movie The Birth of a Nation, which many deemed an incitement to racial

48                                                    OHIO HISTORY

prejudices, and Governor Vic Donahey of Ohio wrote him, declaring his

determination to prevent the showing of the picture.

In June of that year he went to Oberlin to the fiftieth anniversary of

the graduation of his class (1875). There, President Henry C. King gave

the baccalaureate sermon on "Patience" and Newton D. Baker delivered the

commencement address, "Education in Action." Scarborough enjoyed the

alumni dinner in Warner Gymnasium, and the festive moments and the

joyous renewal of old friendships.

In November he went East to make his annual address before the

Y.M.C.A., speaking on "Social Near East Problems." But he realized that

his vigorous days were over, and now he was in a time of life for reminiscing.

As he had grown older he grew more conservative, more tolerant, less

aggressive. He believed that the Negro had made "unparalleled progress"

in every line of endeavor, but that the Negro churches had not kept pace with

the advance in home life and educational efforts. He explained: "There has

grown to be too much of church politics, too much greed on the part of

some high in its offices--a greed for office, power, and money which has

dragged in the mire the robes of some in ecclesiastical positions."

He had been associated with the Wilberforce community for more than

forty years. There, in 1890, his wife and he had occupied a new home,

named Tretton Place after the residence of the Scarborough family in

Anthony Trollope's novel. This was their home during the rest of their life

together. At times vicissitudes of health had overtaken him. Under the

strain of efforts to secure philanthropic aid for Wilberforce he had suffered

a temporary nervous breakdown in 1910. On New Year's night 1915 he

had slipped on the ice on the university campus, breaking two ribs and

fracturing a third. This necessitated confinement to his home for many

weeks followed by a period of recuperation in Florida.

He had vivid memories of inspiring incidents over many years in the

classroom and of happy social occasions with students and colleagues. In

his autobiography he recalled

the many pleasant hours when they were gathered under our roof or on our

lawn for an evening or afternoon of jollity, and I can see in memory the long

line passing at ten o'clock down the stairway and through the long hall, a happy

throng, grasping our hands with an appreciative word as they said goodbye--

each made happier by bearing away from the large basket at the door an apple,

an orange, a huge popcorn ball as they left us, an uplifted company to live on

higher planes and eagerly look forward to another gathering.

Among all of his friends he felt that Professor Richard T. Greener

50                                                   OHIO HISTORY

days thereafter when a severe wind leveled a giant oak on his lawn, he

faintly smiled as he observed, "That is myself." On another occasion, in

his restlessness he insisted on working on a grape arbor which had been

damaged by the storm. The next day an increasing lameness and an attack

of nausea necessitated the calling of a physician. On August 5 he was com-

pelled to go to bed for rest. Only once thereafter did he leave the room,

then to creep painfully into the library to take a last look at his books.

The nausea rapidly increased, so that he was unable to take nourish-

ment or medicine. At first he was rebellious, but then he manifested an

acceptance of the inevitable. The constant solicitude of his wife, the visits

and prayers of his pastor, and the faithfulness of friends and of his physician

were evident. At sunset on the evening of September 9, he peacefully passed

away.102

Scarborough had preferred very simple funeral services, but an ade-

quate recognition of his accomplishments seemed necessary to his friends

and the university authorities. On the morning of September 12 the casket

was taken to Galloway Hall, so that the body might lie in state before the

platform on which he had appeared on countless occasions. At the head and

foot of the casket stood a university cadet. The services were held at one-

thirty in the afternoon. Dean George F. Woodson of Payne Seminary

preached the sermon, emphasizing Scarborough's religious faith. Bishop

Reverdy Ransom of the A.M.E. Church delivered the eulogy. Dr. W. A.

Anderson, one of his early pupils and a member of the university board of

trustees, read the biographical sketch and a tribute prepared by Dr. W. A.

Galloway, Scarborough's co-worker for many years on the state board of

trustees and his personal physician and friend. Miss Hallie Q. Brown,

long-time neighbor and friend, read two of his favorite poems, "Emanicipa-

tion" and "The Upper Room." The choir then sang his favorite hymns, "In

the Cross of Christ I Glory" and "Jesus, Lover of My Soul," and "There Is

No Death," was sung as a solo.

Numerous were the tributes of love and appreciation that were received

at this time emphasizing his sterling and gracious personal character. In

the field of leadership he had done much for the Negro, for the Republican

party, and for Wilberforce, and in the field of scholarship, the historian

of Wilberforce tells us, he was "the greatest scholar to be connected with

the institution for nearly half a century."103

NOTES                                                                                   85

84 Official Records, VII, 23.

85 See petition of Ohio Senate to President Lincoln [copy], February 3, 1862, in Garfield

Papers, Library of Congress.

86 Cleveland Herald, January 16, 1862.

87 Newspaper comments collected by J. H. Rhodes from the New York Post and other papers

and quoted in a letter to Garfield, January 20, 1862. Garfield Papers, Library of Congress.

88 Official Records, VII, 56. See also ibid., 46-48, 55-57; Johnson and Buel, Battles and

Leaders, I, 396.

89 Official Records, VII, 48.

90 Ibid., 48-50.

91 Humphrey Marshall to Alexander Stephens, February 22, 1862.

92 Official Records, VII, 57-58.

WILLIAM SANDERS SCARBOROUGH

* This is the second and final part of an article on William Sanders Scarborough, the first

part of which appeared in the October 1962 issue (v. 71, pp. 203-226).

1 Transactions of the American Philological Association, 1882, XIII (Cambridge, Mass., 1882),

iv. The Transactions of the American Philological Association will be referred to hereafter as

Transactions only.

2 Ibid., 1884. XV (Cambridge, Mass., 1885), vi.

3 At this commencement Jebb had received an honorary LL.D. Dictionary of National Biography,

1901-1911 (Oxford, 1912), 367-369.

4 Transactions, 1885, XVI (Cambridge, Mass., 1886), xxxvi.

Ibid., 1886, XVII (Boston, 1887), ii; ibid., 1887, XVIII (Boston, 1888), ii.

6 Education, IX (1888-89), 263-269.

7 Ibid., 396-399.

8 Ibid., X (1889-90), 28-33.

9 Transactions, 1888, XIX (Boston, 1889), xxxvi-xxxviii; ibid., 1889, XX (Boston, 1889), v-vi.

10 Ibid., 1890, XXI (Boston, n.d.), xlii-xliv. Later, he read a paper with the same title before

the National Educational Association.

11 Ibid., 1891, XXII (Boston, n.d.), 1-lii.

12 Education, XII (1891-92), 286-293. The paper was based largely on Grote's History, VII,

154.

13 Education, XIV (1893-94), 213-218. It was also summarized in Transactions, 1892, XXIII

(Boston, n.d.), vi-viii.

14 "Hunc Inventum Inveni," Transactions, 1893, XXIV (Boston, n.d.), xvi-xix.

15 Ibid., 1894, XXV (Boston, n.d.), xxiii-xxv.

16 Ibid., 1895, XXVI (Boston, n.d.), xi.

17 Ibid., 1896, XXVII (Boston, n.d.), xlvi-xlviii.

18 Ibid., 1898, XXIX (Boston, n.d.), lviii-lx.

19 Education, XIX (1898-99), 213-221, 285-293.

20 Transactions, 1902, XXXIII (Boston, n.d.), xx.

21 Ibid., 1903, XXXIV (Boston, n.d.), xli.

22 Ibid., 1906, XXXVII (Boston, n.d.), ii, xxx-xxxi.

23 Ibid., 1907, XXXVIII (Boston, n.d.), ii, xxii-xxiii.

24 Ibid., 1908, XXXIX (Boston, n.d.), v.

25 Ibid., 1911, XLII (Boston, n.d.), ii.

26 Ibid., 1912, XLIII (Boston, n.d.), ix-xvii.

27 Ibid., 1913, XLIV (Boston, n.d.), iii.

²⁸ Ibid., 1916, XLVII (Boston, n.d.), ii.

29 Arnett was born at Brownsville, Pennsylvania, March 16, 1838, and died at Wilberforce,

Ohio, October 7, 1906. For a listing of a collection of his papers, see The Benjamin William

Arnett Papers at Carnegie Library, Wilberforce University, Wilberforce, Ohio, compiled by

Casper L. Jordan (Wilberforce, Ohio, 1958).

30 Leonard E. Erickson, "The Color Line in Ohio Public Schools, 1829-1890" (unpublished

Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1959), 333-339.

31 Champion City Times (Springfield, Ohio), March 1, 1887.

32 The Centennial Jubilee of Freedom at Columbus, Ohio (Xenia, Ohio, 1888), 67.

86                                                                      OHIO HISTORY

33 Arlin Turner, George W. Cable (Durham, N. C., 1956), 241-262.

34 The Forum, VII (1889), 80-89.

35 The Arena, II (1890), 39-56. For Breckinridge's important political, legal, and journalistic

career, see Dictionary of American Biography, III, 11-12.

36 Wade Hampton, "The Race Problem," The Arena, II (1890), 132-138.

37 Yet Hampton was relatively a moderate and was defeated for reelection to the senate by

the demagogic Ben Tillman. Hampton M. Jarrell, Wade Hampton and the Negro: The Road

Not Taken (Columbia, S. C., 1949).

38 The Arena, II (1890), 560-567.

^{39 Ib}id., IV (1891), 219-222.

40 The Forum, XXV1 (1898-99), 434-440.

41 Education, XX (1899-1900), 270-276.

42 Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, XVI (1900), 145-147.

43 See also Daniel Walden, "The Contemporary Opposition to the Political and Educational

Ideas of Booker T. Washington," Journal of Negro History, XLV (1960), 103-115.

44 After careful study of the Booker T. Washington papers a recent student concludes: "It is

clear, then, that in spite of his placatory tone and his outward emphasis upon economic develop-

ment as the solution to the race problem, Washington was surreptitiously engaged in undermining

the American race system by a direct attack upon disfranchisement and segregation; that in spite

of his strictures against political activity, he was a powerful politician in his own right." August

Meier, "Toward a Reinterpretation of Booker T. Washington," Journal of Southern History,

XXIII (1957), 220-227.

45 Various papers from his pen were published during this period in the Southern Workman

and Hampton School Record.

46 The Kansas City Star declared that this discriminatory action was wholly "at variance with

the progressive spirit of the Great West."

47 Methodist Review, LXXVI (1894), 890-899.

48 For further discussion, see John Henry Barrows, The World's Parliament of Religions

(Chicago, 1893).

49 The Arena, XVII (1896-97), 186-192. An excerpt was printed in the Review of Reviews,

XV (1897), 216-217.

50 The Arena, XXIV (1900), 478-483.

51 "The Negro and Our New Possessions," The Forum, XXXI (1901), 341-349; "The Negro

and Higher Learning," ibid., XXXIII (1902), 349-355.

52 For details of the observance, see Basil Mathews, Booker T. Washington (Cambridge, Mass.,

1948), 216-217.

53 The latter address was printed later at Springfield, Ohio.

54 American Magazine, LXIII (1907), 563-579; LXIV (1907), 3-18, 135-148, 297-311, 381-395.

See also Ray Stannard Baker, American Chronicle (New York, 1945), 238. Following the Color

Line was published in New York in 1908.

55 For a report of the sessions, see G. Spiller, ed., Papers on Inter-Racial Problems, Com-

municated to the First Universal Races Congress (London, 1911).

56 The Independent, LXXXVII (1916), 386-387. The Independent sponsored an effort to erect

a science hall at Wilberforce in honor of Ward, but the war prevented the accomplishment of

the proposal.

57 The Independent, LXXXIX (1917), 505.

58 Eugene H. Roseboom and Francis P. Weisenburger, A History of Ohio (Columbus, 1953),

342, 353.

59 "Race Riots and Their Remedy," The Independent, XCIX (1919), 223. Scarborough's picture

was also published in this issue.

60 A.M.E. Review, I (1884), 37-45.

61 Ibid., II (1886), 132-138.

62 Ibid., III (1886), 126-135.

⁶³ Ibid., X (1894), 348-357.

64 Ibid., XVI (1900), 360-367.

65 P. H. Swift, "The Third Ecumenical Conference," Methodist Review, LXXXIV (1902), 211-

218.

66 The son had set out for Rome in 1891 to continue his art studies but had located in Paris.

By 1901 his pictures "Resurrection of Lazarus," "Annunciation," "Christ and Nicodemus," and

others had brought him considerable renown. Dictionary of American Biography, XXII, 648-649.

NOTES                                                                                  87

67 Tanner lived until May 25, 1937, dying in Paris.

68 Henry F. Pringle, The Life and Times of William Howard Taft: A Biography (New York,

1939), I, 51, 59.

69 Erickson, "The Color Line in Ohio Public Schools," 333-339.

70 Conventions of free Negroes to assert the rights of their race were not unknown before the

Civil War. Howard H. Bell, "The National Negro Convention, 1848," Ohio Historical Quarterly,

LXVII (1958), 357-368; John Hope Franklin, From    Slavery to Freedom  (New York, 1947),

233-234. Such conventions were frequent in the years after 1865. Herbert Aptheker, ed., A Docu-

mentary History of the Negro People of the U. S. (New York, 1962), II, 540-543, 686-691, 697-

703, 708-711.

71 The address was printed in pamphlet form and was widely distributed, receiving favorable

comments.

72 Proceedings of the Eighth Republican National Convention, 1884 (Chicago, 1884), 17.

73 For other aspects of the campaign, see Margie A. Smith, "The Presidential Election of 1884

in Ohio" (unpublished M.A. thesis, Ohio State University, 1960).

74 For Hoadly's political activities, see Mary G. Roberts, "The Governorship of George Hoadly,

Governor of the State of Ohio, 1883-1885" (unpublished M.A. thesis, Ohio State University, 1952).

75 At the dinner preceding the banquet, at the home of Governor and Mrs. Foraker, Scarborough

was seated between Senator John Sherman of Ohio and Governor James A. Beaver of Pennsylvania.

He rode to the Statehouse later with Sherman.

76 Ohio State Journal (Columbus), February 14, 1888.

77 "Address to the Colored Citizens of the United States," in Frederic M. Holland, Frederick

Douglass (New York, 1891), 371-372.

78 Douglass was appointed by Harrison as United States minister to Haiti. James A. Padgett,

"Diplomats to Haiti and Their Diplomacy," Journal of Negro History, XXV   (1940), 292-296.

For Harrison's favorable attitude toward the Negro, see Harry J. Sievers, Benjamin Harrison.

Hoosier Statesman, From the Civil War to the White House, 1865-1888 (New York, 1959), 231,

244, 361.

79 For the program of the meeting, see the Columbus Daily Press, February 13, 1889.

80 Douglass resigned in humiliation following attacks upon him for not supporting United

States imperialistic policies in Haiti. A. T. Volwiler, ed., The Correspondence Between Benjamin

Harrison and James G. Blaine, 1882-1893 (Philadelphia, 1940), 81.

81 Letters in ibid., 174, 177, 178, 181.

82 James S. Clarkson to Scarborough, August 15, 1892. Scarborough Papers, Carnegie Library,

Wilberforce University. All letters cited hereafter are in this collection.

Clarkson had gained notoriety as an arch-spoilsman during Harrison's administration by his

wholesale removal of Democratic postmasters.

83 It went to William Frank Powell of New Jersey, a native of Troy, N. Y., and the office

was raised to that of envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary. Padgett, "Diplomats to

Haiti," 302-306.

84 See details in Henry F. Pringle, Theodore Roosevelt (New York, 1931), 248-249.

85 T Bentley Mott, Myron T. Herrick, Friend of France (New York, 1929), 79-85; George

Porter Felger, "The Campaigns and Governorship of Myron T. Herrick" (unpublished M.A.

thesis, Ohio State University, 1938).

86 Pringle, Theodore Roosevelt, 458-464; Joseph B. Foraker, Notes of a Busy Life (Cincinnati,

1916), II, 260-261.

87 For Beacom's career, see General Catalogue of Oberlin College, 1833-1908 (Oberlin, Ohio,

1909), 65.

88 Gerald E. Ridinger, "The Political Career of Frank B. Willis" (unpublished Ph.D. dis-

sertation, Ohio State University, 1957), 148ff.

89 Maurice Maschke to Scarborough, July 7, 1920.

90 Frank B. Willis to Scarborough, August 31, 1920.

91 Various letters, including those of October 11 and November 8, 1920, from Willis to Scar-

borough.

92 Harry S. New to Scarborough, November 3, 1920.

93 Official notices, e.g., for employment from November 1, 1921, to January 31, 1922; from

February 1, 1923, to April 30, 1923; from November 1, 1923, to December 31, 1923. Scarborough

Papers.

94 Warren G. Harding to Scarborough, September 22, 1922, and February 2, 1923.

95   Scarborough to Henry C. Wallace, January 15, 1923 (copy).

88                                                                      OHIO HISTORY

96 Published at Washington in 1926.

97 Current History, XXI (1925), 565-569.

98 Ibid., XXV (1926), 384-387.

99 Harry M. Daugherty to Scarborough, October 5, 1923; H. H. Speelman to Scarborough,

December 29, 1923; Simeon D. Fess to Scarborough, January 4, 1924.

100 Vic Donahey to Scarborough, July 18, 1924.

101 Frederick A. McGinnis, A History and an Interpretation of Wilberforce University (Wilber-

force, Ohio, 1941), 144. Du Bois tells of his manifold difficulties at Wilberforce, partly due to

his "terrible plainness of speech," but there he met his future wife. W. E. B. Du Bois, Dusk of

Dawn (New York, 1940), 49-50, 56-57.

102 Springfield Daily News, September 10, 1926; New York Times, September 12, 1926.

103 McGinnis, Wilberforce University, 146. Oddly enough the first printed Library of Congress

card crediting him with a published work is probably based on mistaken identify. The card

attributes to him a sixty-six page Historical Sketch of the Cincinnati Law Library Association,

an address given before that body, June 12, 1875. Probably the talk was given by a member of

a prominent Cincinnati family. W. W. Scarborough had served as president of the Bank of the

Ohio Valley, organized in 1858, and in 1875 was president of the Cincinnati Gas, Light, and

Coke Company. Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, Bulletin, VI (1948), 95; 28th

Annual Report of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce (Cincinnati, 1876), 226. W. S. Scar-

borough was a Cincinnati attorney. Williams' Cincinnati Directory, 1868 (Cincinnati, 1868), 450.