CONGRESS, UNITE I) 



146 



but I .Mine to the conclusion that it was im- 

 hle. You cannot draw a lino and say 

 a man who can read and write shall vote, 

 that a man who cannot read and write 

 shall It is an uncertain te-t, a dif- 



to he applied i;i any government. It 

 i> unjust lien-, because by your laws you have 

 iied this class from learning to read and 

 . The mere habit of reading and writing 

 N no te-t of intelligence. It is true, a man 

 who can ivad and write has opportunities of 

 acquiring intelligence which one who cannot 

 'r write h:is not; but it is no sufficient 

 :M>II which to base the great rights of suf- 

 frage. The very difficulty of drawing a line 

 compelled ns either to exoltule the whole black 

 population in this District from all right to 

 or else to extend it to all alike without 

 distinction of race or color. I think, therefore, 

 the Senate of the United States did perfectly 

 right when they abolished all distinctions upon 

 this subject, and, as a general rule, allowed 

 every head of a family or every male citizen to 

 exercise the elective franchise. 



" The President says this is not the time to try 

 the experiment. I say that it is precisely the 

 time. We have recently, with great unanimity, 

 passed a constitutional amendment, in which 

 we have endeavored to persuade in a gentle way 

 the people of the Southern States to give some 

 degree of political power or political rights to 

 the negroes of the South. Since we have passed 

 that amendment we cannot sit here and refuse 

 to give to the negro population of this District 

 some political power, as we' have in a measure 

 by our constitutional amendment bribed the 

 people of the Southern States to extend some 

 political power to their negroes. It seems to 

 me that now is the time, at the end of this great 

 civil war, when general principles are discussed 

 more than ever before, to start out upon cor- 

 rect principles. 



" The President says this is not the place for 

 this experiment. I say it is the place of all 

 others, because if the negroes here abuse the 

 political power we give to them, we can with- 

 draw the privilege at any moment. It is always 

 within the power of Congress to revoke this 

 authority. If it be shown hereafter that by 

 their ignorance, or their folly, or their crime, 

 they are endangering or will endanger civil 

 society in this community, we can withdraw at 

 any time the power which wo now confer, and 

 resume our original functions. When the power 

 is conferred by a State, it cannot be withdrawn, 

 except by a change of the constitution, but 

 hero wo can withdraw it. 



" I have always thought, and I have often been 

 taunted for saying, that this District was the 

 paradise of free negroes. It is the paradise 

 of free negroes, and it ought to be. Hereto- 

 fore they were under the ban of prejudice; in 

 the Southern States the great mass of th--m 

 were slaves ; in the Northern States they could 

 not enjoy any rights; in the City of New York 



t*,hey were cruelly mobbed while we were in the 

 VOL. vii. 10 



miil-t of tlio war, in which they served ns faith- 

 full v n x soldiers and laborers. ' In nearly all of 

 tin- Slate- they an- now denied poiitieil POWMr. 

 Here political power can bo conferred upon 

 them with safety ; I will siy fur the free negroes 

 in this l>i-trict that they will exerci-r their 

 new power with reasonable moderation and 

 intelligence. They are now making rapid prog- 

 ress in education. They are sustaining their 

 own schools without public money, although 

 they are taxed to maintain the schools for 

 white children. They are building churches. 

 They are now showing evidences of intelligence 

 and a degree of industry and order which some 

 classes of the white people do not. I believe 

 they are rapidly advancing in the scale of civi- 

 lization, and that, if not now, they will soon be 

 prepared to vote with as much intelligence as 

 other citizens of the District. 



" But there is another reason why we can con- 

 fer this power here, even before it is conferred 

 in the States. Here this element can do no 

 harm. The people in this District vote simply 

 upon municipal questions; they exercise no 

 political power ; they have no voice either in the 

 Senate or the House of Representatives. The 

 questions upon which they are called to vote 

 are simply questions of dollars and cents 

 money matters which affect them in common 

 with other property holders, and upon which 

 they will vote with as much discretion as 

 others. 



"I say, therefore, that this is the time, and 

 this is the very place, to try this experiment. 

 I desire for one to see it extended all over the 

 country. I have no doubt that the people 

 of Ohio, who have for fifty years excluded the 

 black population from voting, will, in their 

 own good time, and in their own way, without 

 any interference from outsiders, allow the 

 negro population of that State, which is very 

 small, participation in the elective franchise, 

 and, probably, place them on an equality with 

 the whites. I have no doubt this will be done. 

 The State, as a political community, would 

 not allow anybody else to interfere with their 

 power over this subject; but when the consti- 

 tution is revised in its regular course, this 

 discrimination against our negro citizens will 

 be removed, and it may bo done sooner." 



Mr. Oowan, of Pennsylvania, said : u To say 

 that the people who are to bo affected by the 

 measure, ought to have no voice in the ques- 

 tion, is laying the axe to the very root of the 

 tree of liberty. It is to put the bar at the very 

 foundation of the edifice, and to overturn it. 

 The people of the District of Columbia are a 

 free people, a distinct, separate, independent 

 community, as much so as the people of Maine, 

 or the people of Pennsylvania, or the people of 

 Ohio, with the same rights; and those rights 

 are to be preserved by us, not trampled upon. 



"Now, what is the question? This IM-triel 

 is inhabited by two different, races. (lentle- 

 meu say this argument has all been probed to 

 the bottom; it has all been answered. I beg 



