f great practical
import to him, for upon these depends the approval or the rejection of
his record. The Congressman who aspires to longevity of service is
apt, therefore, to determine his proposal and defense of measures of
legislation largely, if not wholly, by the expressed opinion of those
whom he represents. Regarding the Negro Congressmen, therefore, in the
light of the practices common to all Congressmen, there can be offered
no valid criticism of the character of their legislation. The records
of Congress show that these functionaries were, as a matter of
policy, interested in their constituents, and that they promoted
legislation for general advancement for the reason that the
circumstances of the people whom they represented warranted
legislation of that sort.

For the tendency of some of the Negro Congressmen to propose
legislative measures which were racial in character, two reasons are
conspicuously obvious. In the first place, these men regarded
themselves the official spokesmen of their race. The power conferred
upon them they believed to be evidence of the expectation and
confidence of the Negroes in them to secure for the race civil rights,
economic opportunity and political preferment. They found, moreover,
that legislation granting to Negroes their civil rights failed often
to protect them in the exercise of those rights. For such protection,
then, these Congressmen had often to contend. These personal, ever
present, inherent duties permitted these Congressmen neither time nor
energy for the preparation of legislative measures of other types.

Another reason for restricting their efforts to local measures or
those peculiar to their race was the rule of politics that all honor
for the formulation of national measures must attach to the seasoned
veterans in Congress. This custom has become so well established as to
be traditional. It could not have been expected that the Negro
members, then, should take the lead in Congressional legislation. They
faithfully cooperated with the leaders of Congress and generally voted
for measures considered productive of the greatest good of the
country.

Why did the Negro Congressmen fail to have their measures enacted into
law? The path of a bill is fraught with difficulties. The well-known
journey through the committee, through both houses of Congress, to the
conference and to the President, but few bills complete. Many bills of
the Negro Congressmen died of this