288 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



or less of moral sense, because of the horrid 

 condition in which they have been kept, know- 

 ing not what the laws of God require, because 

 they have been kept in a state of ignorance 

 if they were all assembled within the limits of 

 Massachusetts, does not everybody know that 

 there is no State in the Union that would ex- 

 clude them more certainly than Massachusetts ? " 



Mr. Sumner, of Massachusetts, then offered 

 the following amendment : 



Provided, That this shall not take effect except 

 upon the fundamental condition that within the State 

 there shall be no denial of the electoral franchise, or 

 of any other rigtits on account of color or race, but 

 all persons shall bo equal before the law. And the 

 Legislature of the State, by a solemn public act, shall 

 declare the assent of the State to this fundamental 

 condition, and shall transmit to the President of the 

 United States an authentic copy of such assent when- 

 ever the same shall be adopted, upon the receipt 

 whereof he shall, by proclamation, announce the 

 fact; whereupon, without any further proceedings 

 on the part of Congress, this joint resolution shall 

 take effect. 



Mr. Clark, of New Hampshire, said : " Mr. 

 President, I am against this amendment as it 

 now stands, because it is an amendment to this 

 resolution which proposes to recognize the 

 government in the State of Louisiana, which is 

 a State in my judgment, still a State in the 

 Union, having its constitution overthrown, but 

 desiring and attempting to establish a new con- 

 stitution ; and I hold that we have no power to 

 amend that constitution ; and that is the rea- 

 son why I shall be obliged to vote against it 

 here." 



Mr. Hendricks, of Indiana, moved a postpone- 

 ment, saying: " Sir, the lessons of to-night have 

 lieen instructive. There is a strife here ; and it 

 is not a strife between gentlemen. Senators 

 are too honorable to have a personal contro- 

 versy. It is a strife of principle; and the 

 question is, what is to be done with the four 

 million negroes when they are set free ? There 

 are Senators upon the Republican side who feel 

 that it is a very troublesome question. That is 

 the trouble here to-night. It is not whether a 

 particular measure shall be considered, but 

 that very thing ; and I think the Democracy will 

 eventually have some gains from gentlemen 

 who will not go the extreme doctrine. The 

 Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Sumner) is 

 determined that none of these States shall ever 

 be heard in the halls of Congress until the men 

 who speak from those States speak the voice of 

 the negroes as well as of the white men. Other 

 Senators say that shall not be. We Democrats 

 are a unit upon that question. We believe in 

 the sentiment of the illustrious Senator for- 

 merly occupying a seat in this body from Illi- 

 nois, that this Government was made by white 

 men for white men, and we expect to stand by 

 that idea. Let the controversy go on. The 

 Senators and the Republicans over the country 

 who wish to elevate the negro to an equality, 

 political and social, and civil and legal, with 

 the white man, will have their controversy 

 with Senators and Republicans who entertain 



sentiments with the Senator from Wisconsin, 

 who dp not believe that the condition of the 

 negro in the South is such as entitles him to 

 control the legislation and policy of this great 

 country." 



Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, moved to suspend all 

 prior orders to take up the revenue bill. 



Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, opposed the motion, 

 saying : " Sir, the matter which has been under 

 consideration for several days now, the recog- 

 nition of the existing State government in Lou- 

 isiana, has so far progressed that the Senate 

 was ready to vote upon it on Saturday night, 

 and a vote was only prevented by dilatory mo- 

 tions made I wish not to say any thing offen- 

 sive, but still the truth ought to be spoken 

 made in a factious spirit, avowedly made for 

 the purpose of delay. It was manifest upon 

 that occasion that a majority of the Senate, 

 two-thirds of the body, desired action ; and I 

 ask, shall one-third of this body be permitted 

 by factious opposition to delay an important 

 bill of this character ? Its merits are not under 

 discussion at this moment, I know. If, sir, we 

 can hold that measure before us, if the Senate, 

 a clear majority of which has expressed itself 

 by vote after vote in favor of action upon the 

 Louisiana case, will say to this factions minor- 

 ity, 'Upon you belongs the responsibility of the 

 public business of the country ; we will con- 

 tinue to sit, commencing now, until you cease 

 your factious opposition,' I hope that no Sen- 

 ator here acting upon the responsibility he 

 owes to the country will be willing by mere 

 motions of delay to continue the matter much 

 longer." 



Mr. Sprague, of Rhode Island, said : " I do 

 not mean to discuss that question, but simply 

 to suggest the point I wish to make in voting 

 for the motion of the Senator from Ohio, and 

 against the consideration of the measure sug- 

 gested by the Senator from Illinois. I hold in 

 my possession a paper indicating the names of 

 the members of the Legislature of this State 

 that we are called upon to recognize; and it 

 shows that twenty-five, or twenty-seven, or 

 thirty of those gentlemen who now constitute 

 that Legislature, are office-holders under this 

 Government or the government of the State, 

 which is the same thing." 



Mr. Sumner, of Massachusetts, followed, say- 

 ing : " Mr. President, I remember last summer 

 that good fortune threw me in the path of a 

 distinguished gentleman just returned from 

 Louisiana. I think he had been present at the 

 sittings of the convention whose work finds 

 such an advocate in my friend from Illinois; at 

 any rate he had been in New Orleans at the 

 time in the discharge of important public duties. 

 In reply to an inquiry with regard to that con- 

 vention, he said compendiously, that it was 

 ' nothing but a stupendous hoax ' yes, sir, noth- 

 ing but a stupendous hoax, and the product 

 of that convention " 



Mr. Johnson, of Maryland, asked: "Will the 

 member be kind enough to tell, if he is at lib 



