214 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



ceased, when the clang of arms was no more 

 heard in the country, the Southern people ral- 

 lied and took the oath to support the proclama- 

 tions of Mr. Lincoln, in order that the colored 

 man might be free. Those proclamations, Mr. 

 Speaker, were regarded at the time as uncon- 

 stitutional ; yet the Southern people were will- 

 ing that the colored man should enjoy his free- 

 dom, and all over the South they came forward 

 and took the oath to support those proclama- 

 tions. 



" Following hard upon that, the conventions 

 of the Southern States assembled, and by a 

 solemn act ratified the freedom of the colored 

 man, confirming it forever by statute upon the 

 records of their governments. 



"What else did they do? They went to 

 work and secured the colored man in all his 

 civil rights, or what may properly be termed 

 civil rights. The people there consented that 

 he should vote ; they consented he should hold 

 office ; they consented he should serve upon 

 juries; they consented that he should hold 

 property, and that he should be a witness in 

 court. All the real rights properly known as 

 civil rights were guaranteed to the colored man 

 in that section ; and the charge cannot justly 

 be made against this people that they are op- 

 posed to according civil rights to the colored 

 man on account of any prejudice or hatred, for 

 it is not in their hearts. 



" Why, then, do we oppose the civil-rights 

 bill? That is the question; and speaking as 

 I do, and feeling as I speak, without prejudices, 

 I will show what is the real objection to the 

 bill known as the civil-rights bill. I think 

 gentlemen of the committee will bear me out 

 when I say the title of the bill we had before 

 us ought to be changed, and made to read thus : 

 ' A bill to protect the colored people in their 

 social rights.' That is the way it should read. 



"Now, Mr. Speaker, the distinguished gentle- 

 man from Massachusetts (Mr. Butler) laid 

 down the law, and it has not been controverted, 

 that all men are entitled under the. law to the 

 right to go to an hotel, to ride in a public rail- 

 way-carriage, to interment, and to be taught in 

 the public school sustained by moneys raised 

 by taxation. 



" It is laid down as the common law of the 

 land. Now, let us see for a few minutes, Mr. 

 Speaker, how the case stands. There is no rail- 

 way-car in all the South which the colored man 

 cannot ride in. That is his civil right. This 

 bill proposes that he should have the oppor- 

 tunity or the right to go into a first-class car* 

 and sit with white gentlemen and white ladies. 

 I submit if that is not a social right. There is 

 a distinction between the two. Now, there is 

 not an -hotel in the South where the colored man 

 cannot get entertainment such as food and lodg- 

 ings. That is his civil right. The bill of the 

 committee provides that there shall be no dis- 

 tinction. Even if he is allowed to go into the 

 dining-room, and is placed at a separate table 

 because of his color, it will be a violation of 



this law. Placing him, therefore, at the table 

 with the whites is a social right. 



" Now, sir, provision has been made for free 

 schools in my own native State of North Caro- 

 lina. We have cheerfully taxed ourselves there 

 for the education of OUP people, including the 

 colored race ; but separate schools are organ- 

 ized for the instruction of the latter. One of 

 the civil rights of the colored man undoubtedly 

 is the right to be educated out of moneys raised 

 by taxation. His children, under the law, have 

 that right ; but this bill goes further, and pro- 

 vides that colored children shall go into the 

 same school with white children, mixing the 

 colored children and the white children in the 

 same schools. I submit to the committee wheth- 

 er that is not a social right instead of a civil 

 right. Therefore it is I say this bill ought to 

 be changed, or rather its title ought to be 

 changed. The real objection, then, to civil 

 rights, so called, is that it is not best for both 

 races; that in fact it will be detrimental to 

 the interests of both races. 



" Now, Mr. Speaker, I propose to show brief- 

 ly how that will be. In the first place, the 

 true policy in regard to the intercourse of man- 

 kind all over this broad earth is in the recogni- 

 tion of the fact that such intercourse is one 

 made up of mutual interests. It is the interest 

 of the hotel-keeper to entertain his guests, it 

 is the interest of the railway company to trans- 

 port passengers ; the interests are mutual ; and 

 that is the true policy all the world over. But 

 whenever you undertake to force persons of 

 color into their social rights, then, in my judg- 

 ment, you have done the colored man a serious 

 damage. Let the people of the South alone, 

 sir, and this thing will adjust itself. It will 

 come out all right. In coming to this city the 

 other day, colored men were sitting in first-class 

 cars with their wives, where they were admit- 

 ted by the managers of the road ; and I am 

 told in this city one of the first hotels admits 

 colored men as guests. It will adjust itself if 

 let alone ; but if you undertake to coerce so- 

 ciety before it is ready, you will damage the 

 colored man in all his interests, and at the same 

 time do damage to the white race. 



" There are between four and five millions 

 of colored people in the South, whose interests 

 are intimately and closely connected with those 

 of the white people. The one cannot well do 

 without the other. Where does the colored 

 man get his place to live, where does he obtain 

 employment ? In a great measure from the 

 white men of the country, and almost entirely 

 from those opposed to this bill. And I tell the 

 committee now, through you, Mr. Chairman, 

 that the great majority of the people of the 

 Southern States, of all political shades of opin- 

 ion, are opposed to any thing like force in this 

 matter. 



"This bill, Mr. Speaker, will, more or less, 

 bring about an antagonism of the races ; and 

 that state of things would not be best for the 

 colored man. I submit it in good faith, that if 



