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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



are exceptional. As a general rule, while abil- 

 ity to read and write does not prove high intel- 

 ligence, the want of this ability proves gross 

 ignorance and utter incapacity to vote intelli- 

 gently. It is therefore no injustice to say to 

 any man, white or black, Before you share in 

 the direction of public affairs you must at least 

 furnish this evidence of your capacity." 



Mr. Saulsbury, of Delaware, followed, saying: 

 " Gentlemen, you being the Legislature of the 

 District of Columbia, and the people of this city 

 having by a vote of between six and seven thou- 

 sand against thirty-five asked you not to pass 

 this act, and the other portions of the District 

 being unanimously opposed, will you do it? 

 You would not do it if you were legislating for 

 the people of your own States. You are now 

 acting as the Legislature of the District of 

 Columbia. Then you are not governed in 

 your action by a desire to conform to the will 

 of the people for whom you act, but by a 

 desire to show here an .example of free negro 

 government so that that example may be imi- 

 tated' in other sections of the country, and 

 you hope that from this centre will go forth 

 such an influence as to cause the people in the 

 different States of the Union to follow your 

 example." 



Mr. Cowan, of Pennsylvania, said: "Mr. 

 President, to be serious about this thing, what 

 kind of a qualification is it for the exercise of 

 the duties of an American citizen that he be . 

 able to read and write his own name ? To 

 write a man's name is simply a mechanical 

 operation. It may be taught to anybody, even 

 people of the most limited capacity,^ twenty 

 minutes ; and to read it afterward certainly 

 would not be very difficult. I have the high- 

 est respect for the sagacity, the intelligence, 

 and the statesmanship of my honorable friend 

 from Connecticut (Mr. Dixon), but I really 

 (why it is I am not prepared to say now) can- 

 not see the force of this qualification which he 

 proposes to attach to negro suffrage. 



" But, the idea of setting up this mere mechan- 

 ical art of writing a man's name and being able 

 to read it as a standard, to me is mockery. 

 Such an intelligence qualification as a general 

 rule is a mockery. If you ask the radical side 

 of this House to-day -whether it is for want of 

 intelligence that they complain of their oppo- 

 nents, they will tell you ' No ;, those conser- 

 vative fellows can read and write as well as any- 

 body; some of them really are very learned 

 men; some of them have grasped the whole 

 range of the sciences; it is not because they 

 cannot read and write ; it is not because the 

 avenues of knowledge are not open to them ; ' 

 but what a party always complains of on the 

 part of its opponents is that they are rascals ; 

 they intend to destroy the country, they intend 

 to overturn its institutions, they intend to de- 

 stroy liberty, and on the whole they are the very 

 incarnation of concentrated diabolism ! It is 

 not because people do not know that they are 

 supposed to be incapable of performing their 



duties as American citizens I mean the mass 

 of them it is because they are supposed to be 

 perverse, they are supposed to be malignant, 

 they are supposed to be so far impregnated with 

 that general malice which makes them oppose 

 that which is a good thing if it comes from their 

 opponents, just as I was encountered the other 

 day in starting a very good thing. It was op- 

 posed by a great many persons because it came 

 from me. That illustrates exactly the position 

 of the great parties of the country. ' No good 

 thing can come out of Nazareth ' was the old 

 cry. We have a man in my town who is particu- 

 larly obnoxious to some people ; and they do 

 not take any newspapers; they do not read 

 any thing about politics ; but on the morning 

 of the election they come into town and inquire 

 how he is going to vote, and they vote on the 

 other side. You see how cheap that is, how 

 easy it is, how much it saves, how much of 

 trouble and turmoil and difficulty and conten- 

 tion you get rid of by adopting some simple 

 method of that kind when you come to deter- 

 mine whether you will support a particular pro- 

 ject or not. There are other people that you 

 know of, perhaps, and I, too, who use the same 

 economical method of preparing themselves for 

 political duties, but in a different form, by tak- 

 ing, for instance, some exceedingly intelligent 

 gentleman, as my friend from Iowa ; and coming 

 into town in the morning and asking, 'How is 

 Mr. Grimes going to vote ? Mr. Grimes is a 

 sound man, I am going to vote just as he 

 votes." 



" All these methods are resorted to ; but 1 

 believe that I have never yet encountered any 

 difficulty upon the score of reading and writing, 

 and particularly reading and writing a man's 

 name, which, as it has been suggested, may be 

 in a foreign language, may be in a language 

 utterly unknown to anybody except the writer. 

 If he chooses to say there is such a language 

 as that in which he writes, how are you to de- 

 termine it? " 



Mr. Foster, of Connecticut, followed, saying : 

 "I submit, sir, that on general principles 

 without intelligence there can be no safety in 

 allowing people to vote ; there can be no safety 

 in ignorant suffrage. I know that the honor- 

 able Senator and other gentleman here make 

 an appeal in regard to the blacks of the coun- 

 try because as it is said, and truly said, they 

 have for a long period of time been held under 

 oppression ; it has been a criminal offence for 

 them to learn to read; and now to make read- 

 ing or writing or both a qualification of suf- 

 frage is adding insult to injury. I do not so 

 understand it. I do not understand that be- 

 cause we have been doing a cruel wrong and 

 injustice to these people for centuries, we are 

 thereby bound to give them privileges which 

 will not inure to their benefit, and which 

 will be dangerous to society. Did I not be- 

 lieve they would be thus dangerous I should 

 vote most cheerfully to give every man of them 

 the right of suffrage. I do believe that the 



