ARKANSAS. 



were free, would have them protected in their 

 just rights, as they were by law, but would 

 never consent to see them enfranchised and 

 made the rulers of white men " not without 

 referring also to the negroes' natural want of 

 intelligence, their incapability of culture and 

 development, and the consequent impossibility 

 of their properly using the right of suffrage, 

 on which points he and others had frequently 

 spoken at length William H. Gray, a negro, 

 and delegate to the convention from Phillips 

 County, rose and spoke as follows : 



" It appears to me, the gentleman has read 

 the history of his country to little purpose. 

 "When the Constitution was framed, in every 

 State but South Carolina free negroes were al- 

 lowed to vote. Under British rule this class 

 was free, and he interpreted that ' we the peo- 

 ple' in the preamble of the Constitution, meant 

 all the people of every color. The mistake of 

 that period was that these free negroes were 

 not represented in propria persona in that con- 

 stitutional convention, but by the Anglo-Saxon. 

 Congress is now correcting that mistake. The 

 right of franchise is due the negroes bought by 

 the blood of forty thousand of their race shed 

 in three wars. The troubles now on the coun- 

 try are the result of the bad exercise of the 

 elective franchise by unintelligent whites, the 

 ' poor whites ' of the South. I could duplicate 

 every negro who cannot read and write, whose 

 name is on the list of registered voters, with a 

 white man equally ignorant. The gentleman 

 can claim to be a friend of the negro, but I do 

 not desire to be looked upon in the light of a 

 client. The Government has made a solemn 

 covenant with the negro to vest him with the 

 right of franchise if he would throw his weight 

 in the balance in favor of the Union and bare 

 his breast to the storm of bullets ; and I am 

 convinced that it would not go back on itself. 

 There are thirty-two million whites to four 

 million blacks in the country, and there need 

 be no fear of negro domination. The State 

 laws do not protect the negro in his rights, as 

 they forbade their entrance into the State. 

 [Action of loyal convention of '64.] I am not 

 willing to trust the rights of my people with 

 the white men, as they have not preserved 

 those of their own race, in neglecting to pro- 

 vide them with the means of education. The 

 Declaration of Independence declared all men 

 born free and equal, and I demand the enforce- 

 ment of that guarantee made to my forefathers, 

 to every one of each race, who had fought 

 for it. The constitution which this ordinance 

 would reenact is not satisfactory, as it is- blurred 

 all over with the word 'white.' Under it 

 one hundred and eleven thousand beings who 

 live in the State have no rights which white 

 men are bound to respect. My people might 

 be ignorant, but I believe, with Jefferson, that 

 ignorance is no measure of a man's rights. 

 Slavery has been abolished, but it left my peo- 

 ple in a condition of peonage or caste worse 

 than slavery, which had its humane masters. 



White people should look to their own ances- 

 try; they should recollect that women were 

 disposed of on James Eiver, in the early settle- 

 ment of the country, as wives, at the price of 

 two hundred pounds of tobacco. When we 

 have had eight hundred years as the whites to 

 enlighten ourselves, it will be time enough to 

 pronounce them incapable of civilization and 

 enlightenment. The last election showed that 

 they were intelligent enough to vote in a solid 

 mass with the party that would give them 

 their rights, and that too in face of the influ- 

 ence of the intelligence and wealth of the State, 

 and in face of threats to take the bread from 

 their very mouths. I have no antipathy tow- 

 ai?d the whites; I would drop the curtain 

 of oblivion on the sod which contains the 

 bones of my oppressed and wronged ancestors 

 for two hundred and fifty years. Give us the 

 franchise, and if we do not exercise it properly 

 you have the numbers to take it away from us. 

 It would be impossible for the negro to get 

 justice in a State whereof he was not a full 

 citizen. The prejudices of the entire court 

 would be against him. I do not expect the 

 negro to take possession of the government ; 

 I want the franchise given him as an incentive 

 to work to educate his children. I do not de- 

 sire to discuss the question of the inferiority 

 of races. Unpleasant truths must then be told ; 

 history tells us of your white ancestors who 

 lived on the acorns which dropped from the 

 oaks of Didona, and then worshipped the tree 

 as a God. I call upon all men who would see 

 justice done, to meet this question fairly, and 

 fear not to record their votes." 



In the session of January 29th, he said: 

 " Negroes vote in Ohio and Massachusetts, and 

 in the latter State are elected to high office by 

 rich white men. He had found more preju- 

 dice against his race among the Yankees ; and 

 if they did him a kind act, they did not seem 

 to do it with the generous spirit of Southern 

 men. He could get nearer the latter : he had 

 been raised with them. He was the sorrier on 

 this account that they had refused him the 

 rights which would make him a man, as the 

 former were willing to do. He wanted this a 

 white man's government, and wanted them to 

 do the legislating as they had the intelligence 

 and wealth ; but he wanted the power to pro- 

 tect himself against unfriendly legislation. 

 Justice should be like the Egyptian statue, 

 blind and recognizing no color." 



Concerning intermarriage between whites 

 and negroes, Mr. Bradley, a delegate to the 

 convention, having offered to insert in the con- 

 stitution a clause " forbidding matrimony be- 

 tween a white person and a person of African 

 descent," on which point nearly all of the 

 members spoke pro and con. in that and the 

 following days, Mr. Gray said : " It was seldom 

 such outrages were committed at the North, 

 where there are no constitutional provisions of 

 the kind proposed. He saw no necessity of 

 inserting any in the present constitution. As 



