Francis William Reitz
Francis William Reitz | |
---|---|
H.C. van Heerden | |
Personal details | |
Born | Cape Colony | 5 October 1844
Died | 27 March 1934 Cape Town, South Africa | (aged 89)
Spouse(s) | Blanka Thesen (1854–1887) Cornelia Maria Theresa Mulder (1864–1935) |
Children | 15 |
Alma mater | South African College |
Profession | Lawyer |
Francis William Reitz, Jr. (
Reitz had an extremely varied political and judicial career that lasted for over forty-five years and spanned four separate political entities: the
Reitz was a popular personality, both for his politics and his openness. When State President Brand suddenly died in 1888, Reitz won the presidential elections unopposed. After being re-elected in 1895, subsequently making a trip to Europe, Reitz fell seriously ill, and had to retire.[6] In 1898, now recovered, he was appointed State Secretary of the South African Republic, and became a leading Afrikaner political figure during the Second Boer War.[7] Reluctant to shift allegiance to the British, Reitz went into voluntary exile after the war ended.[7] Several years later he returned to South Africa and set up a law practice again, in Pretoria. In the late 1900s he became involved in politics once more, and upon the declaration of the Union of South Africa in 1910, Reitz was chosen the first president of the Senate.[8]
Reitz was an important figure in Afrikaner cultural life during most of his life, especially through his poems and other publications.[9]
Family
Francis William Reitz, Jr., was born in
Reitz married twice. His first marriage (
Deneys, his son, fought against the British in the Second Boer War, commanded the
Education
Reitz received his earliest schooling at home, from a governess, and at a neighbouring farm. When he was nine years old, he went to the Rouwkoop Boarding School in
By then, Reitz had developed a keen interest in law, and he continued his studies at South African College, reading law with professor F.S. Watermeyer. The latter's death only months after Reitz started working with him, made Reitz decide to continue his studies in London, at the Inner Temple. It was a decision that needed deliberation, as his father was hoping for his son to return to the farm in due time, and the financial situation of the family was not strong. However, Reitz did go to London, and finished his studies successfully. He was called to the bar at Westminster on 11 June 1867. During his time in England Reitz became interested in politics, and regularly attended sessions of the House of Commons. Before returning to South Africa he made a tour of Europe. Back in South Africa, Reitz established himself as a barrister in Cape Town, where he was called to the bar on 23 January 1868.[12]
Early career
In the beginning Reitz found it hard to make a living, as competition among lawyers in
In 1873 Reitz was asked to represent the district of
Judge and official of Orange Free State
With his appointment to the
Before the mid-1870s, the judicial system of the Orange Free State was rather amateurish and haphazard in character, particularly because most of the judges were legally unqualified. Most of the judicial procedures were in the hands of district magistrates, the so-called
Institutionally, Reitz did much for the codification and review of the laws of the Orange Free State. With his colleagues C.J. Vels, O.J. Truter, and J.G. Fraser Reitz published the first Ordonnantie boek van den Oranje Vrijstaat (Ordinance Book of the Orange Free State) in 1877, making the acts and ordinances of the republic available to the larger public. He also played a role in the revision of the constitution of the Orange Free State, with regard to articles on citizenship and the right to vote, was chairman of the examination committee for aspirant practitioners, and contributed to the improvement of the prison system and the district administration.[4]
State President of Orange Free State
Already in 1878, voices sounded for Reitz to run for the presidency, but President Brand's position was still very strong and Reitz openly praised his qualities and refused to stand against him. In the late 1870s and early 1880s the political temperature ran high in the Orange Free State. The annexation of the
In the Orange Free State President Brand was one of the politicians who held on to a more cautious and consolidating policy towards the British government at the Cape, maintaining strict neutrality. In this position Brand followed the habit of a lifetime, and it earned him a British
As president Reitz was one of the first Afrikaners to actively develop a so-called Bantu policy, in philosophy and terminology going beyond contemporary ideas on segregation between white and black. Under his government Indian immigrants were by law forbidden to settle in the Orange Free State (1890). This led to a confrontation with the British government and an extensive correspondence between Reitz and the British high commissioner in Cape Town, in which internal sovereignty was claimed and established.[4]
In economic terms, the late 1880s were a period of growth in the Orange Free State. Agriculture picked up, and the railway system became an important source of income as well. Reitz was instrumental in the modernisation of farming, propagating new techniques and a scientific approach to the prevention of plagues. Here Reitz showed himself the agriculturalist and model farmer his father had been before him.[6]
Under Reitz's presidency the new meeting hall for the
As could be expected, immediately after he was inaugurated, Reitz contacted the government of the South African Republic with the objective to establish new and closer political ties. Already on 4 March 1889 the Orange Free State and the South African Republic concluded a treaty of common defence at Potchefstroom. Treaties about trade and the railways were to follow. Even earlier, in January 1889, the Volksraad charged Reitz to negotiate a customs treaty with both the British South African colonies and the South African Republic. On 20 March 1889 a Customs Conference was held in Bloemfontein which led to an agreement between the Orange Free State and the Cape Colony which was hugely beneficial for the former. The economic benefits grew further when new railway lines were opened between the Cape Colony and Bloemfontein (1890) and between Bloemfontein and Johannesburg (1892), directly connecting Cape Town with Johannesburg and turning the Orange Free State into a transit economy. For Reitz the development of a unified South African railway system was also a political goal: the railways as a means to diminish mutual distrust and create unity and mutual understanding between the white population of South Africa.[6]
Reitz's policies were appreciated by the
The trip to Europe was far from just a family holiday. In
In June 1896 Reitz travelled to Europe once more on a five-month trip to recover from his debilitating illness. On his return to South Africa he established himself in Pretoria in the South African Republic in July 1897, where he set up a new law practice.[7]
State Secretary of South African Republic
Reitz did not stay a private person for long because a conflict between the South African Republic legislature and
As State Secretary Reitz had a complicated and hefty job. After the State President he was the most important member of the Executive Council (Uitvoerende Raad). As the most senior civil servant he was responsible for the oversight over the implementation of the laws and regulations, as well as for all the correspondence of the President, official government reports, etc. He was also an intermediary between the Executive Council and parliament, the First and Second Volksraad, and a key figure in the foreign affairs of the State. Experienced and well organised as he himself was Reitz managed to quickly modernise the structure of the state apparatus, by implementing regulations for the running of the government departments, appointing an archivist for his own, and by prescribing that all correspondence with the government should be in Dutch.[7]
The State President of the South African Republic, Paul Kruger, was not an easy man to work with, and in some circles it was predicted that Reitz would quickly find himself subordinated to Kruger. This was not the case, however. On occasion the two men clashed on matters of policy, but Reitz remained true to his own convictions, gaining some influence over Kruger in the process. Originally praised by the British for his diplomatic courtesy, their attitude quickly changed when they understood that Reitz was a protagonist of Transvaal independence. Reitz was sometimes rather brazen in his political statements, so when he claimed the South African Republic to be a fully sovereign state, the British jumped on him.[7]
In view of rapidly mounting British pressure and an ensuing armed conflict over the position of the
The British government did not give in to the ultimatum, and two days later, on 11 October 1899, the
Self-chosen exile and return to politics
Although instrumental in drafting the Treaty of Vereeniging, Reitz personally did not want to swear allegiance to the British government and chose to go into exile. On 4 July 1902, he left South Africa and joined his wife and children in the Netherlands. To alleviate his financial troubles, Reitz set out on a lecture tour in the United States.[7] A waning interest in the Boer cause since the war was over made the tour fail and forced Reitz to return to the Netherlands. There, his health failed him again, leading to his hospitalisation and an extensive period of convalescing. He was then supported by his friends W.J. Leyds and H.P.N. Muller and the Nederlandsch Zuid-Afrikaansche Vereeniging (Dutch South-African Society).[8]
In 1907, after the old Boer republics received self-government, and in the run-up to the formation of the Union of South Africa, leading Afrikaner politicians J.C. Smuts and L. Botha asked Reitz to return to South Africa and play a role in politics again. Together with his wife, he established himself in Sea Point, Cape Town. In 1910, already sixty-six years old, he was appointed president of the Senate of the newly formed Union of South Africa.[8]
These were no easy years, again, as former Afrikaner compatriots found each other on two sides of the political fence, in a rapidly changing world. As in his earlier life, Reitz remained a man of outspoken convictions, which he aired freely. As such, he came into conflict with the Smuts government, and in 1920 he was not re-appointed as president of the Senate. He did remain a member of that House until 1929, however.[8]
Honours and death
As an important public figure, Reitz was honoured and remembered in different ways. In 1923, the
When he finally retired from public life, Reitz moved to
Cultural figure
Reitz was an important figure in Afrikaner cultural life. He was a poet and published many poems in Afrikaans, which made him a progenitor of the development of Afrikaans as a cultural language.
For Reitz, Afrikaans was predominantly a language of culture, not of government, where he propagated the use of the official language of the Boer republics, Dutch. During his presidency of the Orange Free State, where the use of English was significant among the burghers, he strongly promoted the use of Dutch, against politicians like John G. Fraser and others who were in favour of English.[18]
Institutionally, Reitz promoted the foundation of the Letterkundige en Wetenschappelijke Vereeniging (Literary and Scientific Society) of the Orange Free State, of which he was chairman for a while, the library at Bloemfontein, and the National Museum of the Orange Free State.[23]
Bibliography
(List incomplete)[24]
Afrikaans and Dutch language
- Reitz, F.W., Hoofregter Reitz over het barbaarsche patois (Paarl 1880).
- Reitz, F.W., 'De Taalkwestie', De Express and Zuid-Afrikaansch Tijdschrift, Sept. 1891.
- Reitz, F.W., 'De Hollandsche taal in Zuid-Afrika', De Zuid-Afrikaan, 13 March 1909.
Education
- Reitz, F.W., 'Opvoeding en onderwijs: een toespraak ... in het Victoria College, Stellenbosch op 15 Junie 1888', Zuid-Afrikaansch Tijdschrift (July 1888).
History
- Reitz, F.W., 'Schetsen uit die Oranje Vrijstaat', Zuid-Afrikaansch Tijdschrift (December 1890).
- Reitz, F.W., Brief van den heer F.W. Reitz ... aan den heer P.J. Blignaut ... (Dordrecht: Morks & Geuze [c. 1900]), 12p.
- Reitz, F.W. & M.T. Steyn, President Marthinus Theunis Steyn, Mannen en vrouwen van beteekenis in onze dagen 33 (Haarlem 1903).
- Hofmeyr, J.H. & F.W. Reitz, Het leven van Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr (Onze Jan) (Cape Town: Van de Sandt de Villiers 1913), xii, 666p.
- Hofmeyr, J.H. & F.W. Reitz, The life of Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr (Onze Jan) (Cape Town: Van de Sandt de Villiers 1913), xii, 666p.
Translations
- Reitz, F.W., translator of Jorissen, E.J.P., Transvaalsche herinneringen (Amsterdam 1897) as Reminiscences of a Transvaal judge. Never published, due to the outbreak of the Second Anglo-Boer War).
- Reitz, F.W., translator of Theal, G.M., Korte geschiedenis van Zuid-Afrika 1486–1835 (Cape Town 1891).
A Century of Wrong
At the advent of the South African War (Second Anglo-Boer War), F.W. Reitz, in his capacity of State Secretary of the South African Republic, published an overview of Anglo-Boer relations in the nineteenth century in Dutch, under the title Eene eeuw van onrecht. The book was an important propaganda document in the war.
The actual authorship of the book is unclear. The second Dutch edition of the book carried the text 'Op last van den staatssekretaris der Z.A.R., F.W. Reitz' ('By order of the State Secretary of the S.A.R., F.W. Reitz'). J.C. Smuts is indicated as author, but probably only edited the introduction and the end of the book, in co-operation with E. J. P. Jorissen. The rest of the text was probably prepared by J. de Villiers Roos.[25]
In 1900, translations appeared in German and English. The English translation only carried the name of Reitz, and has a preface by
- Reitz, F.W., [J. de Villiers Roos, J.C. Smuts, E.J.P. Jorissen,] Eene eeuw van onrecht (Pretoria [1899]), 49p.
- Reitz, F.W., [J. de Villiers Roos, J.C. Smuts, E.J.P. Jorissen,] Ein Jahrhundert voller Unrecht: ein Rückblick auf die süd-afrikanische Politik Englands: autorisierte Uebersetzung aus dem Holländischen, veröffentlicht auf Veranlassung und unter Mitwirkung von F.W. Reitz (Berlin: Walther 1900), 96p.
- Reitz, F.W., [J. de Villiers Roos, J.C. Smuts, E.J.P. Jorissen,] Century of Wrong, Issued by F. W. Reitz ... With preface by W. T. Stead (London: Review of Reviews [1900]), xxiii, 152p.[26]
Poetry
- Reitz, F.W., 'Klaas Gezwint en zijn paert', Het Volksblad 19 July 1870. [translation of Robert Burns, 'Tam O'Shanter's Ride']
- Reitz, F.W., Die steweltjies van Sannie', Het Volksblad 29 November 1873.
- Reitz, F.W., Klaas Gezwint en zijn paert and other songs and rijmpies of South Africa (Cape Town 1884)
- Reitz, F.W. (ed), Vijftig uitgesogte Afrikaansche gedigte (Cape Town 1888)
[Fifty selected Afrikaner poems]
Second edition: Sestig uitgesogte Afrikaansche gedigte (Cape Town 1897);
Third edition: Twee-en-Sestig uitgesogte Afrikaansche gedigte (Cape Town 1898) - Reitz, F.W., Oorlogs- en andere gedigte (Potchefstroom 1910, 1911)
[War and other poems]
References
- ^ From 9 May 1874 to June 1876 he was the chairman of the forerunner of the Supreme Court, the Appellate Court of the Orange Free State, and consequently also the highest judge in the land.
- ^ This article is predominantly based on the information derived from Moll, J.C. (1972). "Reitz, Francis William, die jonge". Suid-Afrikaanse Biografiese Woordenboek. Vol. 2. Kaapstad & Johannesburg: Raad vir die Geesteswetenskaplike Navorsing. pp. 592–600.
- ^ a b c d e Moll, 'Reitz, Francis William', 593.
- ^ a b c d e f Moll, 'Reitz, Francis William', 594.
- ^ "GLSA: Annual Report & Yearbook 2011, page 60" (PDF). Retrieved 21 September 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f Moll, 'Reitz, Francis William', 595.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Moll, 'Reitz, Francis William', 598.
- ^ a b c d e Moll, 'Reitz, Francis William', 599.
- ^ a b Moll, 'Reitz, Francis William', 595–596.
- ^ Biography of Francis William Reitz Archived 21 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine at Worldroots.com mentions Surbiton as place of birth; this is probably a gross misspelling of Swellendam.
- ^ Moll, J.C. (1972). "Reitz, Francis William, die oue". Suid-Afrikaanse Biografiese Woordenboek. Vol. 2. Kaapstad & Johannesburg: Raad vir die Geesteswetenskaplike Navorsing. pp. 590–592.
- ^ a b c Moll, 'Reitz, Francis William', 592.
- ^ Information on parents in Biography of Francis William Reitz Archived 21 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine at Worldroots.com.
- ^ Moll, 'Reitz, Francis William', 594 and other sources give 1864 as her year of birth, but this is incorrect. See: Digitale Stamboom Gemeentearchief Delft Archived 11 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine and original birth certificate Archived 24 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
- ISBN 0-409-09183-9.
- ^ A Theory Of Civilization
- ^ Volksraad Ordonnantie No. 2 (1875) of 20 May 1875.
- ^ a b c Moll, 'Reitz, Francis William', 597.
- ^ Moll, 'Reitz, Francis William', 597, 599.
- ^ Famous, Historic and Notable Diamonds. "The Jubilee". Retrieved 2 May 2008.
- ^ Maitland was also home to the British Boer War Memorial
- ^ Moll, 'Reitz, Francis William', 596.
- ^ Moll, 'Reitz, Francis William', 595–598.
- ^ Basic information derived from Moll, 'Reitz, Francis William', 600.
- ^ W.J. Leyds, Tweede verzameling, I, XV-XVI; F. Oudschans Dentz, Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant 17 August 1934; H.T. Colenbrander, De Gids, C, 6 (June 1936), 340–341.
- ^ A Century of Wrong Archived 16 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Project Gutenberg
Further reading
- Moll, J.C. (1972). "Reitz, Francis William". Suid-Afrikaanse Biografiese Woordeboek. Vol. 2. Kaapstad & Johannesburg. pp. 592–600.
{{cite encyclopedia}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ISBN 0-571-08778-7. Retrieved 17 March 2008.
External links
- Works by Francis William Reitz at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Francis William Reitz at Internet Archive
- Biography of Francis William Reitz at Worldroots.com.
- British Boer War Memorial at Maitland.