CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



213 



.md dnii: tin-in away, nnd tho column for- 



and with u shout which now rings in my 



they went over that redoubt like a flush, 



ninl tho enemy never stopped running for four 



miles I 



" It became my painful duty, sir, to follow 

 in tli.- track of that charging column, and tln-n-, 

 in a space not wider than the clerk's desk and 

 three hundred yards long, lay the dead bodies 

 of live hundred and forty-three of my colored 

 rs, slain in defense of their country, and 

 who had laid down their lives to uphold its 

 flag and its honor as a willing sacrifice; and 

 <>de along among them, guiding ray horse 

 tliis way and that way lest he should profane 

 with his hoofs what seemed to me the sacred 

 dead, and as I looked on their bronzed faces 

 upturned in the sinning sun to heaven as if in 

 mute appeal against the wrongs of that country 

 for which they had given their lives, and whose 

 flag had only been to them a flag of stripes on 

 which no star of glory had ever shone for them 

 feeling I had wronged them in the past and 

 believing what was the future of my country 

 to them among my dead comrades there I 

 swore to myself a solemn oath, ' May my right 

 hand forget its cunning and my tongue cleave 

 to the roof of my mouth if I ever fail to defend 

 the rights of these men who have given their 

 blood for me and my country this day and for 

 their race forever ! ' and, God helping me, I 

 will keep that oath. 



" From that hour all prejudice was gone, and 

 an old-time States-right Democrat became a 

 lover of the negro race ; and as long as their 

 rights are not equal to the rights of other men 

 under this Government I am with them against 

 nil comers; and when their rights are assured, 

 as other men's rights are held sacred, then, I 

 trust, we shall have what we ought to have, 

 a united country North and South, white and 

 black, under one' glorious flag, for which we 

 and our fathers have fought with an equal and 

 not to be distinguished valor. 



" Now, Mr. Speaker, these men have fought 

 for their country ; one of their representatives 

 has spoken, as few can speak on this floor, for 

 his race; they have shown themselves our 

 equals in battle ; as citizens they are kind, quiet, 

 temperate, laborious ; they have shown that 

 they know how to exercise the right of suffrage 

 which we have given to them, for they always 

 vote right; they vote the Republican ticket, 

 and all the powers of death and hell cannot 

 persuade them to do otherwise. They show 

 that they knew more than their masters did, 

 for they always knew how to be loyal. They 

 have industry, they have temperance, they 

 have all the good qualities of citizens, they have 

 bravery, they have culture, they have power, 

 they have eloquence. And who shall say that 

 they shall not have what the Constitution gives 

 them equal rights ? " 



Tho Speaker : " The pending motion is that 

 made by the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. 

 Butler), that the pending bill and proposed 



amendments thereto be recommitted to tho 

 Committee on the Judiciary." 



The motion to recommit wa* agreed to. 



Mr. Vance of North Carolina, mid : "Mr. 

 Speaker: Having been unable to obtain the 

 floor on the civil-rights bill, 1 propotto t 

 vote a portion of my time to the discussion of 

 that subject ; and I think I can do so without 

 prejudice and without subjecting myself truth- 

 fully to the charge of hatred toward the col- 

 ored race. In the will of my grandfather (who 

 was one of those who struggled for liberty upon 

 the heights of King's Mountain) he enjoined it 

 upon his children and his grandchildren to treat 

 kindly the colored people upon the plantation. 

 I hope never to forget a sentiment BO noble and 

 so worthy of obedience. In fact, as a South- 

 ern man, as one who has sympathized from my 

 earliest time of knowledge with the South in 

 all the great principles and struggle* which 

 have interested her, I have felt it my duty to 

 advance in every laudable way the interests of 

 the colored race in this country. I have even 

 taught a colored Sunday-school of one hundred 

 and fifty scholars. I have endeavored in every 

 way possible to advance the interests of that 

 race. I feel, therefore, that I can speak upon 

 this subject without prejudice. 



" The charge has been made against the 

 people of the South that their opposition to 

 such measures as the civil-rights bill has arisen 

 from prejudice and hatred. This charge is un- 

 founded ; it is untrue. Before the war in the 

 days past and gone in the days when there 

 were 4,000,000 slaves in the South, the church- 

 es of the South sent missionaries into the cot- 

 ton plantations, and down into the orange- 

 groves, and out upon the rolling prairies of 

 Texas. Into all parts of the country where 

 great numbers of colored people were collected 

 the churches sent their missionaries, and held 

 up there the standard of the Cross, instructing 

 them in the sublime principles which relate to 

 questions vastly more important than mere 

 earthly things 



" I have yet to meet the Southern man (and I 

 thank God for it) who does not in his heart re- 

 joice that the colored man is free. In my inter- 

 course with the people of my own land, in my 

 travels through the 'sunny South,' I have 

 found the feeling everywhere one of gratitude 

 and thankfulness that the chains of the colored 

 man have been broken ; that he is now per- 

 mitted to walk the earth a free man. 



" Sir, the people of the South were not to 

 "blame for the introduction of slavery among 

 them. It came from elsewhere, and became 

 incorporated as a part of our institutions. The 

 old colored women nursed the white children 

 of the South, while kindness and friendship 

 were maintained between the two races. Such 

 an institution could not be readily abolished. 

 It could probably only be done by the shock of 

 arms. 



" Every Southern man who will call to mind 

 the fact that after the thunder of artillery had 



