242 



CONGRESS, U. S. 



members of the Senate that I have believed, 

 and have so expressed myself, that they cannot 

 obtain real liberty with us where we are in the 

 majority. I have therefore introduced before 

 the Senate a proposition to separate them from 

 as, to give them the opportunity of occupying 

 a country where they can be the majority race 

 and enjoy all the liberties both social and polit- 

 ical that we enjoy. The people I represent are 

 opposed to granting to freedmen the right of 

 suffrage at once. It was tested before our last 

 Legislature. We are unwilling to extend to 

 them the right of suffrage at once, but I be- 

 lieve they will sustain me in voting for a prop- 

 osition to give to all men over twenty-one 

 years of age the right of suffrage after suf- 

 ficient time has been allowed them to qualify 

 themselves to exercise that right." 



Mr. Cowan, of Pennsylvania, further said : 

 "Mr. President, I have from the beginning pro- 

 tested against new issues. When this rebellion 

 broke out, it was our business to make war, and 

 put it down by war. It was our business to pre- 

 sent to the loyal people of the North that sin- 

 gle issue, war or separation, war or a dissolution 

 of the Union ; and I say that in my judgment, 

 if we had stood upon that single idea, if we 

 had presented that single issue and let all other 

 things abide, we should be to-day in a hundred 

 times better position than we are now, and I 

 might say, too, that to-day we should have 

 been in a hundred times better position in 

 regard to that peculiar institution, which some 

 of our friends are so anxious to have destroyed, 

 than we are to-day. 



"What has been the consequence? From 

 what shrub, from what source, from what 

 flower does the copperhead distill his venom ? 

 Where does he get the poison with which he 

 infects the community ? I was going to say, 

 ask the honorable Senator from Illinois [Mr. 

 TRUMBULL]. He derives his capital, he extracts 

 his noxious juices from these side issues which 

 we get up here without any cause or any hope 

 of reward whatever, and which never have done 

 us any good and never will do so. This is one 

 of them. Of what great benefit would it be to 

 this nation that a few ignorant negroes in the 

 District of Columbia should exercise, or, I beg 

 pardon, should abuse the elective franchise, if 

 the country is to be lost and the Union is to be 

 dissolved, and all the elements of this empire 

 let loose to take such direction as their weight 

 may incline them to take ? Of what avail, I 

 say, would that be ? And yet this great result 

 is put in peril by introducing constantly this 

 and cognate schemes which are of the most 

 minute importance when thrown into the great 

 scale." 



This bill made no further progress; but a 

 joint resolution amending the charter of Wash- 

 ington passed both Houses. During its consid- 

 eration in the Senate, May 25th, Mr. Sumner 

 offered the following amendment : 



Provided, That there shall be no exclusion of any 

 person from the register on account of color. 



This was further amended and rejected. 

 Yeas, 18 ; nays, 20. 



YEAS Messrs. Anthony, Chandler, Clark, Dixon, 

 Foot, Foster, Hale, Harlan, Howard, Howe, Lane of 

 Kansas, Morgan, Pomeroy, Ramsey, Sherman, Sum- 

 ner, Wilkinson, and Wilson 18 



NATS Messrs. Buckalew, Carlile, Cowan, Davis, 

 Grimes, Harris, Hendricks, Hicks, Johnson, Lane of 

 Indiana, McDoup-all, Morrill, Nesmith, Powell, Rich- 

 ardson, Saulsbury, Ten Eyck. Trumbull, Van Win- 

 kle, and Willey 20. 



ABSENT Messrs. Brown, Collamer, Conness, Doo- 

 little, Fessenden, Harding, Henderson, Riddle, 

 Sprague, Wade, and Wright 11. 



In the Senate on Feb. 10th, Mr. Sumner, of 

 Massachusetts, offered the following resolution : 



Resolved, That the Committee on the District of 

 Columbia be directed to consider the expediency of 

 further providing by law against the exclusion of col- 

 ored persons from the equal enjoyment of all railroad 

 privileges in the District of Columbia. 



Mr. Sumner said : My special motive in offer- 

 ing this resolution is to call attention to a recent 

 outrage which has occurred in this District. I 

 do it with great hesitation. At one moment I 

 was disposed to keep silence with regard to it, 

 believing that upon the whole the good name 

 of our country required silence ; but I notice 

 that it has already found its way into the jour- 

 nals, and I think therefore it ought to find its 

 way into this Chamber. 



An officer of the United States with the com- 

 mission of a major, with the uniform of the 

 United States, has been pushed off one of these 

 cars on Pennsylvania Avenue by the conductor 

 for no other offence than that he was black. 

 Now, sir, I am free to say that I think we had . 

 better give up railroads in the District of Co-'"* 

 lumbia if we cannot have them without such an 

 outrage upon humanity and upon the good 

 name of our country. An incident like that, 

 sir, is worse for our country at this moment 

 than a defeat in battle. It makes for our cause 

 abroad enemies, and sows distrust. I hope, 

 therefore, that the Committee on the District 

 of Columbia I know the disposition of my 

 honorable friend the chairman of that commit- 

 tee in the bills which we are to consider rel- 

 ative to the railroads in this District will take 

 care that such safeguards are established as will 

 prevent the. repetition of any such outrage. 



Mr. Hendricks, of Indiana, replied : It seems 

 to be considered a great outrage that the ne- 

 groes in the District of Columbia are not al- 

 lowed to take their seats in the same cars 

 with the white men and women who travel 

 on the railroads of this city. If I were to 

 express any opinion on the subject, I should 

 say the outrage would be the other way. 

 But perhaps it is due to the company to say 

 that I have observed the fact, as I suppose 

 other Senators have observed it, that there are 

 cars furnished for the colored people of the 

 District, and those cars are plainly indicated, 

 so that there can be no mistake. I do not un- 

 derstand from the Senator who has introduced 

 this resolution, that any negro has been denied 



