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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



States shall be a white man's Government or a 

 negro Government, and the thunders of the vast 

 majority of the American people pronounced 

 in the recent elections have already decided 

 that question. Sir, the Government of this 

 country was made by white men, it has always 

 continued to be a white man's Government 

 from the beginning, and will be to the end ; 

 and those who seek to establish a contrary 

 power of government in this country will find 

 themselves crushed into dust. If the honor- 

 able Senator from Massachusetts and the advo- 

 cates of negro government want that question 

 to be decided by the people unmistakably let 

 them bring out their Fred. Douglass as their 

 next candidate for the presidency ; and where 

 would he and his followers, negroes or whites, 

 be ? Driven like chaff before the whirlwind 

 of American indignation. 



" Sir, the people of America have already 

 decided that a miserable white minority of less 

 than one-fifth of the people of the United States, 

 with all their negroes in it, shall never appoint 

 a President for the white men of the United 

 States. The white men of the United States 

 will rally in the proportion of three-fourths 

 or four-fifths of the white people of America to 

 decide this important point: that a negro 

 electoral vote, appointed by negro govern- 

 ments, forced by usurped power upon the peo- 

 ple of the Southern States, shall never appoint 

 for them a President of the United States. 

 When the time comes and that grand issue is 

 to be met from North to South, from East to 

 West, in every part of the United States will 

 gather the white people, the hosts of the Cau- 

 casian race, and they will put this mushroom 

 negro power, that has loomed up in such large 

 and monstrous proportions in the last year or 

 two, under their feet, and its allies will be 

 driven into political and social nonentity. Sir, 

 if my desire for the overthrow of the Repub- 

 lican-Radical party, which is the strongest de- 

 sire that ever nestled in my bosom, was now 

 to guide my decisions, I would wish that this 

 bill and every other atrocity to foist the negroes 

 into the mastery of our country and of our 

 Government should be brought up and passed 

 by the forms of law through Congress." 



Mr. Stewart: "Mr. President, from the re-i 

 marks that have just fallen from the Senator 

 from Kentucky, one would suppose he did not 

 know any thing about the fact that the Union 

 party had undertaken to govern this country 

 by the negro vote. I have heard this before. 

 I have heard it from the stump. I have heard 

 this effort for the last year to frighten the Amer- 

 ican people and to make them believe that they 

 would be governed by the negroes ; that if the 

 negroes voted at all they would govern this 

 entire country. I suppose that in the United 

 States there is one person in ten that is of 

 African descent, rather a small minority to 

 control this great Government ! I do not sup- 

 pose that anybody in his senses has really any 

 sincere alarm about negro government. I 



think stating the issue in that form manifests a 

 very strong desire to avoid the real issue. The 

 real issue before the country, the real issue that 

 will be before the country next fall, is whether 

 this country shall be governed by loyal men, 

 by its friends, by those who stood by it in the 

 hour of its peril, or whether it shall be turned 

 over to traitors and its enemies, that they may 

 go on with the work of destruction ; that they 

 may visit punishment upon the friends of the 

 Government. That is the real issue, and yet 

 we hear from every source that the issue is to 

 be whether one-tenth of the American peo- 

 ple, being colored, shall tyrannize over nine- 

 tenths ! 



"It is said that a great sin has been commit- 

 ted by the Union party in conferring the fran- 

 chise upon the negro. I have nothing to say 

 of the justice or humanity of the law; but 

 how was it brought about ? Who brought it 

 about ? Who forced the necessity upon Con- 

 gress and upon the Union party ? I believe 

 that every Union man had settled this prop- 

 osition in his mind, and I believe that every 

 man who loves his country still adheres to the 

 proposition that it is unsafe to place the power 

 of this Government in rebel hands while they 

 are still unrepentant. 



"I repudiate altogether the charge that Con- 

 gress has attempted to set up negro govern- 

 ments. I affirm that they, as they were in duty 

 bound to do, have undertaken to inaugurate 

 loyal governments, governments that will be 

 friendly to our institutions. They have under- 

 taken to preserve our institutions in the hands 

 of their friends. TKat is all. Who is to be 

 alarmed by the cry that one negro in ten of our 

 population is to govern this country? That is 

 a pretty watchword with which to go before 

 the people. It only needs to be stated to show 

 how absurd it is. It is an appeal to a low 

 prejudice for the purpose of placing the Gov- 

 ernment in the hands of rebels. And what 

 purpose have they in view ? Have we ever 

 thought of that ? Is it certain that they will 

 not avenge their supposed wrongs on your 

 loyal soldiers ? Is it certain that they will not 

 refuse to pay the pensions due to your widows 

 and orphans ? Is it certain that they will not 

 repudiate your national debt? Is it certain 

 that they will not claim pay for the slaves we 

 have emancipated? I have heard the Demo- 

 cratic theory stated by a good many Democrats, 

 many of whom in private conversation say 

 that the mission of the Democratic party is to 

 place every thing back where it was before 

 the war, wipe out the debt, reenslave the ne- 

 groes, and pay for what damages have oc- 

 curred. Until they get some of these theories 

 out of their heads, it seems to me it is but 

 right and proper that we should enfranchise 

 the men who are friendly to the Government, 

 who will sustain our institutions, who have 

 been tried and true. I wish it distinctly un- 

 derstood that I have no fear of the American 

 people being frightened out of their wits on 





