166 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



system, we have not a mixed school except the 

 State College. In localities where whites are 

 in the majority, they have two white trustees 

 and one colored." 



Mr. Cobb, of Kansas, said : " I desire to ask 

 the gentleman what, in his opinion, will be 

 the effect of the passage of the Senate civil- 

 rights bill so far as regards the public-school 

 system of the South." 



Mr. Cain : " I believe that, if the Congress 

 of the United States will pass it, and make it 

 obligatory upon all the people to obey it, and 

 compel them to obey it, there will be no trou- 

 ble at all." 



Mr. Kellogg : " Would the gentleman prefer 

 to retain the provision in regard to schools 

 which I have moved to strike out in the House 

 bill, or would he rather have that provision 

 struck out according to my amendment? " 

 Mr. Cain : " I agree to accept it." 

 Mr. Kellogg: "I offered it in the interest 

 of your people as well as ours." 



Mr. Cain: "One word in conclusion. I 

 think I have answered all questions put to me. 

 But I say this, if we pass this bill, make it 

 satisfactory. I know we are in the minority 

 in this country I speak of course of the col- 

 ored people. We are willing to accept any 

 thing which is deemed necessary to the wel- 

 fare of the country. Spare us our liberties; 

 give us peace ; give us a chance to live ; give 

 us an honest chance in the race of life ; place 

 no obstruction in our way; oppress us not; 

 give us an equal chance, and we ask no more 

 of the American people." 



Mr. Kellogg: "Mr. Speaker, I do not de- 

 sire to say any thing upon this bill, except 

 in regard to the amendment I have offered. 

 I think too much time has been consumed 

 already, and this delay has been forced upon 

 us by the action of the other side of the 

 House last week. The amendment I have 

 proposed is to strike out of the House bill 

 reported by the Committee on the Judiciary 

 all that part which relates to schools ; and I 

 do it, Mr. Speaker, in the interest of education, 

 and especially in the interest of the education 

 of the colored children of the Southern States. 

 As the bill is now drawn, we recognize a dis- 

 tinction in color which we ought not to recog- 

 nize by any legislation of the Congress of the 

 United States. Sir, in the legislation of this 

 country I recognize no distinction of color, 

 race, or birthplace. All ought to be equal -be- 

 fore the law ; and the children of all should 

 have an equal right to the best education they 

 can have in the public schools of the country. 

 But this bill proposes to make a distinction by 

 a national law. The proviso to the first sec- 

 tion is one that makes a discrimination as to 

 classes of persons attending public schools ; and 

 I do not wish to make any such provision in 

 an act of Congress. 



<; But upon this school question we should be 

 careful that we do not inflict upon the several 

 States of the Union an injury that we ought 



to avoid. A school system in most of the 

 Southern States has been established since the 

 war of the rebellion, by which the colored 

 children of the South have the advantages of 

 an education that they never could have be- 

 fore that time. I believe, from all the infor- 

 mation I can obtain, that you will destroy the 

 schools in many of the Southern States if you 

 insist upon this provision of the bill. You will 

 destroy the work of the past ten years and leave 

 them to the mercy of the unfriendly legisla- 

 tion of the States where the party opposed to 

 this bill is in power. And, besides, this matter 

 of schools is one of the subjects that must be 

 recognized and controlled by State legislation. 

 The States establish schools, raise taxes for 

 that purpose, and they are also aided by pri- 

 vate benefactions ; and they have a right to 

 expend the money, so raised, in their own way. 

 So far as agricultural schools are concerned 

 which are endowed by Congress, it may be 

 proper to make this provision. But, sir, when 

 I see all that has been done for the education 

 of the colored children of the South since the 

 war, all that has been accomplished in that di- 

 rection, I could not in good conscience vote for 

 any measure which would destroy the whole 

 of the good work that has already been accom- 

 plished, and destroy the system of schools al- 

 ready established in those States. I believe 

 the colored people of the South as well as the 

 colored people of the North, when they under- 

 stand this question, will wish that no such 

 provision shall be made in this or any other 

 bill." 



Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts, said: "I had 

 hoped when this bill was first brought before 

 the House that in all kindness of heart, in all 

 singleness of purpose, with all propriety of 

 tone and thought, we should discuss one of 

 the most momentous questions of civil liberty 

 that can be raised ; a question the solution of 

 which, for good or for evil, will affect our 

 country longer", much longer, than we shall 

 remain on the earth ; but I have been disap- 

 pointed. 



" It is a question of equal civil rights to all 

 citizens a doctrine in which I was brought 

 up from my earliest boyhood. I have always 

 been taught that the foundation of all democ- 

 racy was equality of right, equality of burden, 

 equality of power in all men under the law. 

 And when, a few years ago, a religious and 

 partisan furore shook the land, and it was at- 

 tempted to disfranchise from some of their 

 rights in many of the States a portion of our 

 citizens because of their foreign birth and be- 

 cause of their religion, when the cry went out 

 ' Put no one but Americans on guard,' I stood 

 in my State in almost a hopeless minority, in- 

 deed almost alone, in saying that the privilege 

 of American citizenship once granted was like 

 the privilege of the Roman citizen to be to 

 him the same in Latium and at Athens. And 

 I stood firmly to that until all that prejudice 

 was rolled away from the foreign-born citizen 



