CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



211 



y formation of onr present Government, 

 \\ hen by a short-sighted policy, a policy repug- 

 nant to tnii- ivjiul'lioan government, one negro 

 counted as three-fifths of a man. The logical 



I' tliis mistake <>i thoframersof the Con- 

 Mtitiit'uni htivni/thened the cancer of slavery, 

 whirli finally -pivad its poisonous tentacles over 



uthern portion of the body politic." 

 Mr. I iutli-r, of Massachusetts: "Mr. Speaker, 



<o are rights, again let me ask, why should 



t!i.-y not be given to all citizens of the United 



if wo have the constitutional power to 



do so? If the States give them and execute 



t hem, then there will bo no longer any need for 



-tntute. It will not be enforced, and will 

 do no harm. Where a State will do its duty, 



this statute will be inoperative. Where 



ate does not do its duty in this behalf, 



the flag of the United States, and the 

 power of the United States, and the judiciary 

 >f the United States, should protect the citi- 



against all unfriendly State legislation, 

 or against the want of legislation. And I have 

 the authority of the gentleman from Virginia 

 (Mr. Harris) for saying that 'no State has 



ited on the subject.' 



And it is because of the very prejudice 

 which has prevented such legislation that I 

 claim the passage of the bill. 



" Is it a prejudice at all ? Was there any 

 objection in the South to consorting with the 

 negro as a slave ? Oh, no ; your children and 

 your servants' children played together; your 

 children sucked the same mother with your 

 servants' children ; had the same nurse ; and, 

 unless tradition speaks falsely, sometimes had 

 the same father. 



" Would you not ride in first-class cars with 

 your negroes in the olden time ? What negro 

 servant accompanying a mistress or master, 

 and administering to his or her health, was 

 ever denied a first-class passage in a first-class 

 car in the South before the war ? What negro 

 prl, being the nurse or servant of a lady, was 

 not allowed to sit by that lady and that child 

 in a first-class car? What negro servant, ac- 

 companying a lady or a gentleman, was ever 

 denied admittance to a first-class hotel? My 

 friend from Tennessee, I think it was, told us 

 that in the olden time the master and his slave 

 always used to worship together in the same 

 churches, but that now there are separate 

 churches, and the negroes prefer to worship by 

 themselves. 



' Hut how was it before the war? You talk 

 about your prejudices against social equality I 

 I put this question to the minds and consciences 

 of every man of you. Who is the highest in 

 the social scale, a slave or a freeman ? You as- 



ted with the slave in every relation in life. 

 He now has become your freeman, and now 

 you cannot associate with him ; he has got up 

 in the scale, and you cannot stomach him. 

 Why is this? It is because he claims that as a 

 right which you accorded him always freely a^ 

 n buon. It is because the laws of your land, 



the Constitution of yonr country, gave all men 

 equal rights in accordance with the fiat .: 

 Almighty which has made some of them yonr 

 equal in all things, and therefore he is no lon- 

 ger to be associated with or tolerated I This i* 

 not a prejudice against the negro in any per- 

 sonal objection to him it is a political idea 

 only. 



" I had, sir, to deal with this question e^arly 

 in the war, and I cannot better explain the 

 operations of this kind of prejudice than by 

 stating the exact fact which happened on board 

 one of the boats upon Chesapeake Bay, be- 

 tween Baltimore and Fortress Monroe. A 

 member of the Christian Commission went 

 North after two school-teachers, and brought 

 back two ladies, one of whom had some colored 

 blood in her veins, but so much more white 

 that it took a connoisseur to find the color. 

 The women bought first-class tickets, and 

 took their state-room, sat down at the table, 

 and pnid for their supper. A Virginian, who 

 was on board, being able to know a negro 

 from long use whenever he saw one, smoked 

 out the fact that one of them, a lady in dress, 

 a lady in culture, a lady in manners, had some 

 negro blood in her veins, and he complained to 

 the clerk of the boat that he could not eat at the 

 table in the saloon with her, and the clerk or- 

 dered her forward among the deck-bands and 

 servants. The lady and her companion, fright- 

 ened, ran to their state-room, and locked them- 

 selves in. The Virginian insisted on her being 

 taken out of that. But a provost passenger on 

 board was roused to his duty, and insisted that 

 all that should be stopped. Next morning 

 complaint was made to me as commanding 

 general, and I sent for the clerk an inoffensive 

 old gentleman, who looked as if he would not 

 harm anybody. I said, 'What is all this?' 

 He said, ' I was only carrying out the rules of 

 my boat.' I said, ' Do yon not recognize the 

 fact that the war has made a difference in 

 these things?' He answered, 'Not in the 

 rules of our boat.' I asked, ' What were the 

 rules of your boat before the war ? Could not 

 a colored nurse go with the children of her 

 mistress, and occupy a state-room with them ? ' 

 'Yes, sir.' 'Could she come to the table with 

 them?' 'Yes, sir.' 'Which do you think, Mr. 

 Clerk, is the highest in the social scale, a free- 

 man or a slave? ' ' Oh, a freeman, general, of 

 course.' ' Very well, Mr. Clerk ; I think I can 

 make a rule for your boat now that will be 

 easy of enforcement. Do not go away and 

 say that the commanding general says that the 

 negro is as good as a white man. I am not 

 going to say any such thing. But hereafter 

 let this be your i nle : Let no free person ever 

 be deprived of any privileges on your boat that 

 were ever accorded to a slave person. Do this, 

 and there will be no trouble hereafter.' And 

 there was none. 



" That tells the whole story and covers the 

 whole argument of prejudice. It is not a 

 prejudice, gentlemen. You make a mistake. 



