152 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



the other hand, the amendment which I offer, 

 if adopted, would leave the governments in 

 those States where they belong, and where 

 they ought always to remain in the hands of 

 our own race while, at the same time, it 

 would allow the right of suffrage to all those 

 negroes who have any claim to it by reason of 

 intelligence or patriotic services or estate sub- 

 ject to taxation, namely : 



"1. To those who have served in the Fed- 

 eral Army : 



" 2. To those who have sufficient education 

 to read the Constitution of the United States 

 and to subscribe their names to an oath to 

 support the same ; or 



"3. To those who have acquired and hold 

 real property to the value of $250. 



" But the question may be asked, why not 

 apply the same tests to the white men of the 

 South? The answer is plain and twofold. 

 First, by the constitutions and laws of those 

 States the right of suffrage is already secured 

 to them, and we have no rightful power to 

 take it away. To do so would trample under 

 our feet one of the most sacred rights reserved 

 to the States. It is by extending suffrage to 

 the negroes that Congress is overturning the 

 constitutions of those States. In my opinion, 

 this is a usurpation, which its advocates justify 

 upon the ground of necessity alone. I neither 

 admit the power nor the necessity; but, grant- 

 ing both, no reason can be given, and no ne- 

 cessity but that of party ascendency can be 

 urged, for going any further in this revolu- 

 tionary work than to admit to suffrage the 

 classes of negroes named in this amendment. 



"The second answer is, that white men have 

 for centuries been accustomed to vote. They 

 have borne all the responsibilities and dis- 

 charged all the duties of freemen among free- 

 men ; and it is a very different thing to take 

 away from a freeman a privilege long exercised 

 by him and by his ancestors, from what it is 

 to confer one never before enjoyed upon igno- 

 rant, half-civilized Africans just released from 

 slavery. Three generations back many of 

 them were cannibals and savages of the lowest 

 type of human kind. The only civilization 

 they have is that which they have received 

 during their slavery in America. 



" To confer this great privilege upon the more 

 enlightened negroes might tend to elevate the 

 mass in the end. But to confer it now upon 

 their ignorant hordes can only degrade the 

 ballot and the republican institutions which 

 rest upon it." 



Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, in reply, said: 

 "A great portion of the Senator's argument is 

 based upon the assumption that there is an in- 

 tention on the part of Congress to place the 

 governments of the South under negro control. 

 The answer to this is, it is not true in point of 

 fact ; it is a false assumption ; and of course 

 the whole argument based upon it falls. What 

 is the truth ? Why, sir, in all the Southern 

 States to which the Reconstruction Act applies, 



with the exception of Mississippi and South 

 Carolina, the white population largely prepon- 

 derates. In the State of Alabama, in 1860, the 

 date of the last census, there were five hun- 

 dred and twenty-six thousand whites, in round 

 numbers, and only four hundred and thirty- 

 five thousand slaves, and two thousand six 

 hundred and ninety free colored people. There 

 were nearly one hundred thousand more whites 

 than blacks in Alabama. In Arkansas the 

 whites predominated nearly three to one. In 

 Florida a large majority of the population 

 were whites. In Georgia there are one hun- 

 dred thousand more whites than blacks. In 

 North Carolina the white population prepon- 

 derates nearly two to one. In Texas more 

 than two to one. In Virginia more than two 

 to one. Now, sir, what becomes of this asser- 

 tion that there is an attempt to place the gov- 

 ernments in the rebel States in the hands of 

 negroes ? If you will look at the registration 

 you will find more whites than blacks regis- 

 tered in most of the States ; but if the whites 

 have not registered whose fault is it? The 

 fault of the Senator from Wisconsin, and just 

 such speeches as he has made to-day, to pre- 

 vent the white population from taking part in 

 this work of reconstruction. 



" But, the Senator says, you have disfran- 

 chised the whites. How many? Why, sir, 

 only those who led in the rebellion have been 

 disfranchised. The number is comparatively 

 small. But he says it embraces the brains and 

 talent of the South. Is it true that the brains 

 and the talent of the white population of the 

 great State of Virginia, amounting to nearly a 

 million, were all concentrated in the few per-, 

 sons who held office in that State prior to the 

 rebellion ? All of us who know any thing about 

 Southern society and Southern politics know 

 that offices run in families in that section and 

 always have. Men once in office there fre- 

 quently hold office for life. We all know that 

 when a member was sent to the House of Rep- 

 resentatives or to this body from any of the 

 Southern States in former years he was very 

 likely to be continued as long as he lived or 

 was willing to come. They were not in the 

 habit of changing their officers in that section 

 as we are in the North, and hence the dis- 

 qualifying clause affects but few. And who 

 are they that are disqualified? Why, sir, 

 they are the leaders of the rebellion. The 

 Senator had the frankness to tell us that the 

 people of the South were not in favor of re- 

 bellion; that a majority of the white peor 

 pie of the South were opposed to it. How, 

 then, came they to go into rebellion? He 

 says they afterward united in it. How did 

 that happen? Why, sir, they were forced 

 into it by these very leaders, according to 

 his statement, whom he now seeks to place 

 again in power. They are the last men to be 

 intrusted with authority after having, as he 

 would have us understand, overawed and 

 forced an unwilling people into rebellion. 



