No. 56.
Mr. Bayard
to Mr. Jarvis.
Department
of State,
Washington, February 10,
1888.
No. 78.]Sir: I inclose for your information copy of a
letter from Mr. Stephen W. Hill, of Espy, Pa., concerning a reported effort
to encourage emigration of colored people from the Southern States to
Brazil.
[Page 57]
The Department has no knowledge whatever touching the foundation of the
present report, but in view of the unfortunate results attending the
emigration of citizens of some of the Southern States to Brazil in 1865, and
of a number of laborers who left the United States about 1878, to work on
the Madeira and Marmore Railroad, I should be pained to suppose there was
any probability of the recurrence of similar failures.
I am, etc.,
[Inclosure in No. 78.]
Mr. Hill to Mr.
Bayard.
Espy,
Columbia County, Pa., January 31, 1888.
Dear Sir: I beg leave to call your attention to
the rumor that is going the rounds of the press that there is a scheme
on foot, said to have originated at Topeka, Kans., for starting a great
emigration of colored people from the Southern States to South America.
I beg leave to ask, as a favor to my race, if the State Department has
any knowledge of such an enterprise. And if so, whether the proposed
emigrants are going in good faith to become subjects of the Emperor of
Brazil, or under contract to labor under such terms as will reduce them
to involuntary servitude, and if so, will you use your influence as
Minister of State, so far as may be compatible with international law
and the right of expatriation, to prevent any outrage being perpetrated
on ignorant people. So far as the statement goes to set forth
probability of their being sold into slavery, I have no apprehension for
the reason that President Cleveland’s administration would not tolerate
such a scheme for a moment, as it has endeavored at all times to
administer the Government upon purely democratic principles; that is, to
procure the blessing of liberty and to promote the general welfare of
all, and such a thing would be at variance with the progressive ideas of
the Emperor Don Pedro; but whilst this is true, I am aware of the many
schemes resorted to to violate laws in relation to contract labor, and
to bring persons to this country to take the place of American
workmen.
Yours, etc.,
