CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



147 



e :it an election; but nt least 

 . ten of the colored men can. 



.-t ii!' this Itill, then, will be to intro- 



coiiteMs into tin- I>i>trict of ('olum- 



. perpetuate tin-in jimiiully, mid to beget 



.[-eliding fend. It' white tllcll of tlm 



can become as much embittered 

 .ii-Ii other as we seo that they can 



lien in this society even now, in the society 

 if tin- ! le-a-regulated States North, what are 

 licit tlic \ ial of this tribal differ- 

 ence is poured in? It is hardly to be supposed 

 that there were not wi-e nu-n Before us as well 

 as thi'iv were brave men before Agamemnon. 

 Why has this experiment never been tried 

 heretofore? Gentlemen say it has been tried 

 partially in Massachusetts. Very sparingly in 

 Ifattaomuetta, and very well guarded; very 

 upariiigly in New York, and very well guarded ; 

 very sparingly in Maine, and very well guarded 

 if not sparingly in the words of the law, spar- 

 ingly in the number of negroes." 



Mr. Johnson, of Maryland, said: "Now, 

 Mr. President, is it right let us apply it to 

 ourselves to force this measure upon the peo- 

 ple of this District, who almost exclusively 

 own the property here? Their local govern- 

 ment is a municipal corporation, having no 

 authority whatever to interfere with the rights 

 of persons, or if they have through the instru- 

 mentality of any penal legislation, have only 

 that right subject at all times to be corrected 

 by Congress. As I understand, there were at 

 the time we abolished slavery some fifteen 

 thousand negroes in the District; now I am 

 told there are about thirty thousand. I wonder 

 if my friend from Maine, in going around the 

 city a year or two ago, since slavery was abol- 

 ished, in order to discharge intelligently and 

 humanely his duty as chairman of the Com- 

 mittee on the District of Columbia, saw any 

 thing in the condition of this race which satis- 

 iied him that they were capable of exercising 

 the right of suffrage. Their squalid misery, 

 the disease which at that time was making sad 

 havoc in almost all of the wretched shanties 

 where they were placed touched his heart, 

 touched the hearts to whom that condition 

 liecame known, and they became the objects, 

 and the just objects, of individual charity. 

 They were, in one sense, paupers ; and in 

 every State in the Union paupers are excluded 

 from the franchise. Suppose that instead of 

 the city government here being a municipal 

 corporation of the character that it is, it had 

 lieeii invested with banking privileges, as yon 

 might have done, and you had made each citi- 

 xeti a stockholder to the amount that he would 

 subscribe, would you let in these negroes by 

 force to be stockholders without paying any 

 thing toward the general fund, toward the cap- 

 ital^ Certainly not. And yet here is a cap- 

 ital consisting of personal and real property 

 belonging to the population of the District 

 who are white, over which, and over which 

 alone, the corporation have legislative powers, 



and you propose to give to these poor creature* 



iinn right to levy taxes, to aptm 

 money, that belongs, and belongs now 

 sively, to those who own the property to bo 

 taxed. 



And what makes it still more remarkable: 

 not only did those who are in favor of thia 

 measure fail to provide that suffrage should be 

 granted in the States of the Union by the con- 

 stitutional amendment, but I am not aware that 

 any effort has been made in any State of the 

 Union to do it by legislation, or by constitu- 

 tional change, where it can only be done by 

 constitutional change. My friend who sits near 

 me (Mr. Sherman) has told us that he thinks 

 each State must judge of that for herself; that 

 at the proper time, or, to use his own language, 

 in her own good time, Ohio may give to them 

 a right to vote, because there are so few of 

 them. That is what he said, and I have no 

 doubt it is true. If she gives it at all, it will be 

 because there are so few of them. Here in the 

 neighboring State of Maryland slavery has been 

 abolished, and, as I said a day or two ago, abol- 

 ished with no possible desire to have it rein- 

 stated. I do not believe a proposition of that 

 sort would receive the vote of one man in a 

 hundred. There may be some men I do not 

 know as to that who are suggesting the pro- 

 priety of converting Maryland into a territory, 

 who might be in favor of it ; but no sane man, 

 as I think, who is unprejudiced, and who has 

 no party ends to attain, would think of present- 

 ing to Maryland the proposition of giving to the 

 negroes of Maryland the right of suffrage. Why ? 

 It is useless to close our eyes to the fact ; you 

 may, by constitutional provision and by legis- 

 lation, declare, over and over again, that there 

 shall be no distinction on account of color, but 

 there will be that distinction until the colors are 

 blended so as to become one, if that shall ever 

 happen. We find it in relation to the Indians, 

 independent of their savage condition; we find 

 it in relation to the Chinese." 



The question being taken, resulted as follows: 



YEAS Messrs. Anthony, Cattell, Chandler, Con- 

 ness, Cragin, Creswell, Edmunds, Fessenden, Fogg, 

 Fowler, Frelinghuysen, Grimes, Henderson, Howard, 

 Howe, Kirkwood, Lane, Morgan, Morrill, Poland, 

 Ramsey, Ross, Sherman, Stewart, Simmer, Trum- 

 bull, Wade, Willey, and Williams 29. 



NAYS Messrs. Cowan, Dixon, Doolittle, Foster, 

 Hendricks, Johnson, Nesmith, Norton, Patterson, 

 and Van Winkle 10. 



ABSENT Messrs. Brown, Buckalew, Davis, Guth- 

 rie, Harris, McDougall, Nye, Pomeroy, Riddle, Sauls- 

 bury, Sprague, Wilson, and Yates 13. 



In the House the question was taken on the 

 message and decided as follows: 



Yi:.\s Messrs. Alley, Allison, Ames, Arnell, Delos 

 R. Ashley, James M. Ashley, Baker, Baldwin, Banks, 

 Barker, Baxter, Beaman, "Benjamin, Bidwull, Bing- 

 ham, Blaine, Boutwell, Brandugee, Bromwell, Broom- 

 all, Buckland, Bundy, Reader W. Clark, Sidney 

 Clarke, Cobb, Cook, Cullom, Culver, Darling, Dnwes, 

 Defrecs, Delano, Doming, Dixon, Dodge, Donnelly, 

 Driggs, Eckley, Eggleston, Furosworth, Farquhar, 

 Ferrv, Garfield, Grmnell, Abner C. Harding, Hart, 



