20 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
Africa, headed by Mr. Schreiner, tried in vain to persuade Parlia¬ 
ment to amend the clause in the constitution which barred the 
colored from seats in the Union parliament. A few friends of 
the natives, prominent among whom was Sir Charles W. Dilke, 
supported this plea.®^ It was clear, however, that the “colour-bar’’ 
represented the wishes of an overwhelming majority of the whites 
in South Africa, and the imperial government refused to accept 
amendments to the completed document. The leaders of the two 
great parties gave the constitution their whole-hearted support. 
Mr., now Earl, Balfour characterized the Union as unexampled in 
history; and the prime minister, Mr. Asquith, warned the House 
of Commons “not to wreck this great' work * * * of freedom 
and reconciliation.”®^ It was finally passed without a division. 
The union of South Africa was officially announced by royal 
proclamation of December 2, 1909; and May 31, 1910, the eighth 
anniversary of the peace of Vereeniging, was fixed as the day of 
union. General Louis Botha became the first prime minister and 
Lord Gladstone, a son of the great Liberal leader, was appointed 
as the first governor-general of the Union. 
Thus was accomplished what Sir George Grey, Lord Carnarvon, 
Cecil Rhodes, and others had attempted to affect during the latter 
half of the nineteenth century. These early attempts were, no 
doubt, premature, but lessons were taught which proved valuable 
in the final effort. And it should also be remembered that without 
the Boer War South Africa could not have become united. Strong 
as were the economic and social forces favoring a union, an inde¬ 
pendent Transvaal was largely unaffected by them as long as its 
natural outlet to Delagoa Bay remained accessible, and labor for 
the mines could be recruited in Portuguese territory. Likewise, it 
appears certain that without the aid of the young Britons trained 
in the neo-imperialistic school of Chamberlain and Lord Milner 
the union could not have come into existence at this early date. 
The views in regard to federation presented by the members of 
the “Kindergarten” were shared by their superiors. Conservatives 
as well as Liberals both in South Africa and in England. They 
labored for an end ardently desired by the imperial government 
while employed by it in the crown colony administration of the 
two new dependencies. While no evidence is available to show that 
Stephen Gwynn and Gertrude M. Tuckwell, The Life of the Right Honourable Sir 
Charles W. Dike (2 vols., London, 1917), II, pp. 375, 376. 
The Parliamentary Debates, 5th series. House of Commons, IX, cols. 1006, 1564. 
