750 



UNITED STATES. 



Mr. Douglass : I have, your excellency. 

 The President : When you would look over and 

 Bee a man who had a large family, struggling bard 

 upon a poor piece of land, you thought a great deal 

 less of him than you did of your own master? 

 Mr. Douglass : Not I. 



The President: Well, I know such was the case 

 with a large majority o f you in those sections. Where 

 such is the case we know there is an enmity, we 

 know there is a hate. The poor white man, on the 

 other hand, was opposed to the slave and- his master ; 

 for the colored man and his master combined^ kept 

 him in slavery, by depriving him of a fair participa- 

 tion in the labor and productions of the rich land of 

 the country. 



Don't you know that a colored man in going to 

 hunt a master (as they call it) for the next year pre- 

 ferred hiring to a man who owned slaves rather than 

 to one who did not? I know the fact, at all events. 

 They did not consider it quite as respectable to hire 

 to a man who did not own negroes as to one who 

 did. 



Mr. Douglass : Because he wouldn't be treated as 

 well. 



The President: Then that is another argument in 

 favor of what I'm going to say. It shows that the 

 colored man appreciated the slave-owner more highly 

 than he did the man who didn't own slaves. Hence 

 the enmity between the colored man and the non- 

 slaveholders. 



The white man was permitted to vote because gov- 

 ernment was derived from him. He is a part and 

 parcel of the political machinery. 



Now, by the rebellion or revolution and when 

 you come back to the objects of this war, you find 

 that the abolition of slavery was not one of the 

 objects; Congress and the President himself de- 

 clared that it was waged on our part in order to 

 suppress the rebellion the abolition of slavery has 

 come as an incident to the suppression of a great re- 

 bellion, and as an incident we should give it the 

 proper direction. 



The colored man went into this rebellion a slave ; 

 by the operation of the rebellion he came out a free 

 man equal to a free man in any other portion of the 

 country. Then there is a great deal done for him on 

 this point. The non-slaveholder was forced into the 

 rebellion, and was as loyal as those who lived be- 

 yond the limits of the State, was carried into it, and 

 his property, and, in a number of instances, the lives 

 of such were sacrificed, and he who has survived has 

 come out of it with nothing gained, but a great deal 

 lost. 



Now, upon a principle of justice, should they be 

 placed in a condition different from what they were 

 before? On the one hand, one has gained a great 

 deal ; on the other hand, one has lost a great deal, 

 and, in a political point of view, scarcely stands 

 where he did before. 



Now, we are talking about where we are going to 

 begin. We have got at the hate that existed be- 

 tween the two races. The query comes up, whether 

 these two races, situated as they were before, with- 

 out preparation, without time for passion and ex- 

 citement to be appeased, and without time for the 

 slightest improvement whether the one should be 

 turned loose upon the other, and be thrown together 

 at the ballot-box with this enmity and hate existing 

 between them. The query arises, if, there, we don't 

 commence a war of races. I think I understand 

 this question ; and especially is this the case when 

 you force it upon the people without their consent. 



Again, on February 10th, a committee of the 

 Virginia Legislature presented to the President 

 resolutions approving his course, passed by the 

 House of Delegates. In response, President 

 Johnson said : 



I repeat, I am gratified to meet you to-day, ex- 



pressing the principles and announcing the senti- 

 meats to which you have given utterance, and I trust 

 that the occasion will long be remembered. I have 

 no doubt that your intention is to carry out and 

 comply with every single principle laid down in the 

 resolutions you have submitted. I know that some 

 are distrustful; but I am of those who have con- 

 fidence in the judgment in the integrity in the in- 

 telligence in the virtue of the great mass of the 

 American people ; and having such confidence, I am. 

 willing to trust them, and I thank God that we have 

 not yet reached that point where we have lost all 

 confidence in each other. 



The spirit of the Government can only be pre- 

 served, we can only become prosperous and great as a 

 people, by mutual forbearance and confidence. Upon 

 that faith and that confidence alone can the Govern- 

 ment be successfully carried on. 



On the cardinal principle of representation to 

 which you refer I will make a single remark. That 

 principle is inherent ; it constitutes one of the fun- 

 damental elements of this Government. The repre- 

 sentatives of the States and of the people should 

 have the qualifications prescribed by the Constitu- 

 tion of the United States, and those qualifications 

 most unquestionably imply loyalty. He who comes 

 as a representative, having the qualifications pre- 

 scribed by the Constitution to fit him to take a seat 

 in either of the deliberative bodies which constitute 

 the National Legislature, must necessarily, accord 

 ing to the intention of the Constitution, be a loyal 

 man, willing to abide by and devoted to the Union 

 and the Constitution of the States. He cannot be 

 for the Constitution, he cannot be for the Union, he 

 cannot acknowledge obedience to all the laws, unless 

 he is loyal. When the people send such men in good 

 faith, they are entitled to representation through 

 them. 



In going into the recent rebellion or insurrection 

 against the Government of the United States we 

 erred; and in returning and resuming our relations 

 with the Federal Government, I am free to say that 

 all the responsible positions and places ought to be 

 confined distinctly and clearly to men who are loyal. 

 If there were only five thousand loyal men in a 

 State, or a less number, but sufficient to take charge 

 of the political machinery of the State, those five 

 thousand men, or the lesser number, are entitled to 

 it, if all the rest should be otherwise inclined. I 

 look upon it as being fundamental that the exercise 

 of political power should be confined to loyal men ; . 

 and I regard that as implied in the doctrines laid 

 down in these resolutions and in the eloquent ad- 

 dress by which they have been accompanied. I may 

 say furthermore, that, after having passed through 

 the great struggle in which we have been engaged, 

 we should be placed upon much more acceptable 

 ground in resuming all our relations to the General 

 Government if we presented men unmistakably and 

 unquestionably loyal to fill the places of power. 

 This being done, I feel that the day is not far distant 

 I speak confidingly in reference to the great mass 

 of the American people when they will determine 

 that this Union shall be made whole, and the great 

 right of representation in the councils of the nation 

 be acknowledged. 



Gentlemen, that is a fundamental principle. "No 

 taxation without representation" was one of the 

 principles which carried us through the Revolution. 

 This great principle will hold good yet; and if we 

 but perform our duty, if we but comply with the 

 spirit of the resolutions presented to me to-day, the 

 American people will maintain and sustain the great 

 doctrines upon which the Government was inaugu- 

 rated. It can be done, and it will be done ; and I 

 think that if the effort be fairly and fully made, with 

 forbearance and with prudence, and with discretion 

 and wisdom, the end is not very far distant. 



It seems to me apparent that from every consid- 

 eration the best policy \vMch could be adooted at 



