UNITED STATES. 



749 



tatives shall be apportioned among the 



lever. .. ;.. included within this 



I arding to the number of qualified voton in 



ixes shall be apportioned among the sey- 



hi.-ii in. iv he included within this Union 

 :mg to the value of all taxable property in each 



An amendment of this kind would, in his opinion, 

 :iie I'.isis of representation and direct tuxatiou 

 upon correct principles. The qualified voters were, 

 for the most I'art, men who were subject to draft and 

 enlistment when it was necessary to repel invasion, 

 suppress r bellion, and quell domestic violence and 

 insurrection. They risk their lives, shed their blood, 

 und peril their all to uphold the (lovernment and 

 g.\c pi ,:| M-tion, security, and value to property. 

 ;ied but just that property should compensate 

 for the benefits thus conferred 'by defraying the ex- 

 penses incident to its protection and enjoyment. 



Such an amendment, the 1'resident also suggested, 

 would remove from Congress all issues in reference 

 to the political equality of the races. It would leave 

 the States to determine absolutely the qualifications 

 of their own voters with regard to color; and thus 

 the number of representatives to which they would 

 bo entitled in Congress would depend upon the 

 number upon whom they conferred tlie right of suf- 

 fraire. 



The I'reMJcnt, in this connection, expressed the 

 opinion that the agitation of the negro-franchise 

 Question in the Distnct of Columbia at this time was 

 the mere entering-wedge to the agitation of the ques- 

 tion throughout the States, ana was ill-timed, un- 

 called for, and calculated to do great harm. He 

 believed that it would engender enmity, contention, 

 and strife between the two races, and lead to a war 

 between them, which would result in great injury to 

 both, and the certain extermination of the negro 

 population. Precedence, he thought, should be given 

 to more important ami urgent matters, legislation 

 upon which wo 9 essential for the restoration of the 

 Lnion, th a ;,eace of the country, and the prosperity 

 of the people. 



Again, on February 7th, a colored delegation 

 called upon the President, and had an interview 

 with him. Mr. George T. Downing, in his ad- 

 dress to the President, said : 



"We are in a passage to equality before the law. 

 God hath made it by opening a Red Sea. We would 

 have your assistance through the same. We come 

 to you in the name of the United States, and are 

 delegated to come by some who have unjustly worn 

 iron manacles on their bodies by some whose minds 

 have been manacled by class legislation in States 

 called free. The colored people of the States of 

 Illinois, Wisconsin, Alabama. ; i, Florida, 



South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, 

 Pennsylvania, New York, the New Knirland States, 

 and the District of Columbia, have specially delegated 

 us to come. 



Our coming is a marked circumstance, noting de- 

 termined hope that we arc not satisfied with an 

 amendment prohibiting slavery, but that we wish it 

 enforced with appropriate legislation. This is our 

 . We ask for it intelligently, with the knowl- 

 edge and conviction that the fathers of the Revolu- 

 tion intended freedom for every American that they 

 should be protected in their rights as citizens and 

 equal before -the law. We are Americans, native- 

 -">oi 11 Americans. We arc citizens, we arc glad to 

 have it known to the world, as bearing no doubtful 

 record on this point. On this fact, and with con- 

 fidence in the triumph of justice, we base our hope. 

 no recognition of color or race in the organic 

 law of the land. It knows no privileged class, and 

 therefore we cherish the hope thut we may be fully 

 enfranchised, not only here in this District, but 



throughout the land. We respectfully lubroit that 

 rendering any thing len than t!iiit will i 

 ii us Irs:, than i /ranting any thiug 



.unourfull right* will be a diiTt-gardof our ju*t 

 rights, iif due respect of our feelings. 



Mr. Frcdt ri< k Douglass followed in an ad- 

 in which he said : 



In the order of Divine Providence you art placed 

 in a position where you have the power to vare or 

 destroy us ; to bless or blast us I mean our whole 

 race. Your noble and humane predecessor placed in 

 our hands the sword to assist in saving the nation, 

 and we do hope that you, his able successor, will 

 favorably regard the placing in our bauds the ballot 

 with which to save ourselves. 



We shall submit no argument on that point. The 

 fact that we are the subjects of Government, and 

 subject to taxation, subject to volunteer in the ser- 

 vice of the country, subject to being drafted, subject 

 to bear the burdens of the State, makes it not im- 

 proper that we should ask to share in the privileges 

 of this condition. 



The President, in his reply, said : 



Now, it is always best to talk about things prac- 

 tically, and in a common-sense war. I have said, 

 and I repeat here, that if the colored man in the 

 United States could find no other Moses, or any 

 Moses that would be more able and efficient than my- 

 self, I would be his Moses to lead him from bondage 

 to freedom ; that I would pass him from a land where 

 he had lived in slavery to a land (if it were in our 

 reach) of freedom. Yes, I would be willing to pass 

 with him through the Red Sea to the Land of Promise 

 to the land. of liberty ; but I am not willing, under 

 any circumstances, to adopt a policy which I be- 

 lieve will only result in the sacrifice of his life and 

 the shedding of bis blood. I think I know what I 

 say. I feel what I say ; and I feel well assured, that 

 if the policy urged by some be persisted in, it will 

 result in great injury to the white as well as to the 

 colored man. There is a great deal of talk about the 

 sword in one hand accomplishing an end, and the 

 ballot accomplishing another. 



These things all do very well, and sometimes hare 

 forcible application. We'talk about justice; we talk 

 about right ; we say that the white man has been in 

 the wrong in keeping the black man in slavery as 

 long as he has. That is all true. Again, we talk 

 about the Declaration of Independence and equality 

 before the law. You understand all that, and know 

 how to appreciate it. But, now, let us look each 

 other in the face ; let us go to the great mass of 

 colored men throughout the slave States ; let us see 

 the condition in which they are at the present time 

 and it is bad enough we all know and suppose by 

 some magic touch yon could say to every one, " You 

 shall vote to-morrow," how much would that amelio- 

 rate their condition at this time? 



Now, let us get closer to this subject, and talk 

 about it. What relation have the colored man and 

 the white man heretofore occupied in the South? 

 * * * * I was getting at the relation that sub- 

 sisted between the white man and the colored man. 

 A very small proportion of white persons, compared 

 with the whole number of such, owned the colored 

 people of the South. I might instance the State of 

 Tennessee in illustration. There were there twenty- 

 seven non-slaveholders to one slaveholder, and yet 

 the slave-power controlled that State. Let us talk 

 about this matter as it is. Although the colored man 

 was in slavery there, and owned as property in the 

 sense and in tW lan<rua<re of that locality and of that 

 community, yet, in comparing his condition and his 

 position there with the lion-slaveholder, be usually 

 estimated his importance just in proportion to the 

 number of slaves that his master owned, with the 

 non-slaveholder. 



Have you e' or lived upon a plantation T 



