|
Henry Randolph Walters Jamaica Advocate, May 4, 1895
List of black men suitable for election - "black men fully competent for election" to the Legislative Council. Kingston Mr T.[J.?] G. Murray - late of Wolmer's School Mr A. L. Walcott - West Branch (Episcopal) School Mr P.[T.?] B. Stephenson - Calabar College Mr H. R. Walters - solicitor Mr J. H. Johnson - solicitor [This was the first reference I saw to H.R.Walters, when I was researching Robert Love, who edited the 'Advocate', back in the 1970s-80s.] |
Falmouth Gazette, 1882, November 10, page 3
MR. H. R. WALTER’S SPEECH AT THE KINGSTON MEETING.
[2 lines illegible] [Mr Walters was the next speaker. He introduced himself as a son of Jamaica, (Gleaner)]
. . . a son of the soil. I belong to a race whose allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen has been sealed in blood in defending that flag which has for 1000 years braved the battle and the breeze. But however loyal we are to the Queen and the Crown, we are jealous of our country’s rights and I am ready to contribute my mite towards the overthrow of this Government.
“For the cause that needs assistance,
For the wrongs that need resistance,
For the future in the distance,
And the good that I can do.” [George Linnaeus Banks]
I intend to say a few words. Let me ask you what has Crown Government done for us? Some say it has given us electric telegraph, railway extensions, and coastal steamers. These things are very well and very good, but the little good we have received has been dearly paid for. When Crown Government was first introduced to us we were told that our former corrupt institutions would give place to institutions of a pure and more worthy character, that [the] wheels of fortune were to fan us like the gentle zephyrs of the evening and that Justice and equity would flow like a current from Negril to Morant, in short we would get a system of government perfect in all parts and principled in all its dealings. I would now ask you has this dream been fulfilled? (No, No.) Has this elysium of pleasure, to which we were told to look been realised? (No, No.) [ ] instead of that we now see our representative institutions replaced by institutions cursed with Colonial Office barnacles. (Laughter). That we are burdened and tried beyond our powers of endurance, none will deny, neither will any one deny that offices of any worth are withheld from the sons of the soil. There are no high offices for the sons of Jamaica. We have now a system of Government that is neither for the people nor of the people, and it is only for the benefit of a few who are perfectly indifferent whether the mass of the people are prosperous or happy, or whether they are depressed or disheartened. Jamaica is now regarded as a conquered country and she is ruled accordingly. The luxuries of our land are for our oppressors, and our officials who live on the fat of our land exact tasks from us, as was done by the Egyptians of old, and they do not care whether our people can perform their allotted task or not. We are cooly told by the Secretary of State, who is 5000 miles away, to meet his demand - half of the Florence damages and costs, -.but why a half? If we had then a son of the soil for Attorney General we would have had no Florence case. But we had one of these imported Officials for out Attorney General who dipped his finger into Miss Florence’s pie and a fine mess he made of it. (Great laughter.) A meeting like this gives me hope for the future of Jamaica and her people. I suppose there must be about 3000 persons in this hall to-night your exemplary conduct and superior intelligence is a guarantee to me of the future, and that you are not content to be trampled on. When the Secretary of State tells us cooly to meet this unjust demand it is one thing; but when we see his audacity in packing the Legislative Council by corrupt methods, to secure this vote, it is an outrage which no Honorable people could possibly remain silent under. What these two Honorable sons of the soil – Messrs. Burke and McGlashan wont do, we find these imported officials - Messrs. Capper and Alexander quite demoralised enough to do, and to sell the people whose bread they eat. These men who would sell their country for a title called Honorable with a capital H are the most dishonorable men on the face of the earth. I call them dishonorable honorables (great laughter) I trust that notwithstanding the abominable scheme that has been hatched we will not be crushed, but demonstrate to England and the World that there is life in the old animal yet. I would ask if there had been any benefit to derive from this Florence seizure, do you think that the Imperial Government would have given us a half of the spoils? And if we could not derive any benefit why are we called to pay the damage? I go [in?] for Representative Institutions and with them I can yet look forward to a future for Jamaica and her sons. The Imperial Government does to us what it dare not do to the Irish. Our success lies in being united, for remember ”united we stand, divided we fall.” If our united voice goes to England our wrongs will be redressed, and we will regain the rights and privileges that were wrested from us sixteen years ago. (loud cheers) I will conclude with the words of one of Jamaica’s sons; a late member of the Old Assembly* “Let us make a long pull, and a strong pull, and a pull altogether, and we will break the shackles from the black man’s foot and bring the system down by the run.” Let the oppressed go free!! I say give us liberty or let us die! (Loud and prolonged cheers)
Source of quotation
*Edward Jordan, who was editor of the Watchman in which these words were printed in 1832, with reference to the ending of slavery.
marriage in 1883:
