CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



190 



\\hrii t!i. 'so resolutions are printed and ready 

 ;ion, I may havo soim-thing to say upon 

 tho <[iii'stioM of tlirir adoption. Before the 

 question pushes off now, 1 wish to make one 

 or two remarks, not upon the resolution, but 

 upon one or two points submitted by the Sen- 

 ator from Maine. 



" Sir, it, is not a surprising thing, nor is it an 

 iinintm-al one, that that distinguished Senator 

 should f.vl and manifest a deep interest in the 

 attains of the Southern States. The people of 

 that section have but recently undergone a 

 vast change, social and political ; and it is rea- 

 sonable, it is eminently fit and proper, that one 

 who bore so conspicuous a part in the adoption 

 of the measures which brought about that vast 

 transformation, who occupies so conspicuous a 

 position at the present time, and who perhaps 

 will occupy a still more distinguished position 

 in the future, should scrutinize with anxious 

 solicitude the progress of that people to recon- 

 struction and to their readjustment to the 

 healthy and normal conditions of our national 

 life. Sir, had the Senator come forward with 

 some well-devised scheme of public education 

 by which this newly enfranchised race, who 

 havo had such exalted duties imposed upon 

 them without culture and without even the 

 trained intelligence of practical experience, 

 may bo fitted to exercise their great duties as 

 freemen and citizens and the participants in 

 the sovereignty of commonwealths, every one 

 would have recognized the propriety and the 

 patriotism of such a movement ; for he would 

 have proposed to give to that people what they 

 most need, and what would protect them from 

 every evil and wrong which he now alleges 

 that they labor under. 



" There are other evils in that country which 

 might call forth the lofty and enlarged mea- 

 sures of a patriot and of an American states- 

 man ; but I must confess to some regret that 

 a Senator so distinguished, in looking upon 

 this recently dislocated member of this great 

 American empire, instead of regarding it with 

 reference to those great interests that affect 

 the whole country through the long track of 

 coming years, should have concentrated his 

 whole attention upon its relation to parties and 

 party contests ; that nothing should have struck 

 the Senator's notice or engaged his thoughts 

 except the connection of that people with the 

 ascendancy and defeat of parties and their in- 

 fluence in Federal elections. Party organiza- 

 tions are no part of the Constitution, and they 

 are agencies which work outside of the laws. 

 But, sir, the gentleman's remarks were direct- 

 ed exclusively to the mere party and partisan 

 aspects of this great subject; and with no in- 

 tent whatever to utter a bitter retort, I can not 

 but feel the regret that one of such resolute 

 energies, of such tenacious purposes, such dar- 

 ing ambition, and such great abilities, should 

 have so narrowed his mind as ' to give to party 

 what was meant for mankind.' 



" But, sir, what is the point at last of the 



gentleman's argument this morning? It was 

 remarkable for its significant omissions. Ii 

 was directed exclusively to the suppression of 

 the votes of a particular class of suffragans in 

 the South. Mr. President, if I understood the 

 debates at the time of the adoption of the 

 amendment to which he refers, clothing tin.- 

 negroes of the South'with the right of suffrage, 

 it was to give them protection for their free- 

 dom and for the civil rights which the four- 

 teenth amendment accorded to them. Through 

 tho protracted remarks of the Senator he could 

 not utter one word he could not, because it 

 would not have been tho truth if he had to 

 show that there was a single right of freedom 

 or of citizenship belonging to the black race of 

 the South that was not as secure and as well 

 enjoyed as that of the proudest and freest 

 white man in the land. 



" It is also a remarkable fact that in his in- 

 dictment of the South there is no pretense that 

 there is a single menace in her present attitude 

 to any of the great interests of this country 

 not an imputation of that" character for ' solid ' 

 (according to tho usual phrase) as the South 

 may be, she stands in line with a majority of 

 the American people upon nearly every ques- 

 tion which is now discussed in this nation or 

 argued here in her council chambers. 



" But, sir, to come to the direct point, the 

 Senator asserts that, in consequence of the sup- 

 pression of the negro vote at the South by 

 means which, he alleges, are illegitimate and 

 irregular, the South has a disproportionate 

 party power in this Government. Sir, before 

 this discussion is over I will show that the ne- 

 gro vote has not been suppressed in the South ; 

 I will demonstrate that this political phenome- 

 non, which is the subject of so much discussion 

 and misrepresentation, is a phenomenon that 

 would occur in any free society, and that it has 

 been brought about by the influences which 

 intelligence, and virtue, and sagacity, and the 

 other elements of civilization, always bring to 

 bear upon the classes that are ignorant and de- 

 based. 



"But, sir, assuming all that the gentleman 

 says to be true, that there are in the House of 

 Representatives one hundred and six Repre- 

 sentatives elected of one party complexion, and 

 elected by means that are not what he con- 

 siders legitimate, let us see where we stand in 

 this position. Now, sir, what interest of the 

 North, what interest of this country, is endan- 

 gered by it? Sir, with a united vote of the 

 South she stands a powerless section in this 

 Government ; she is an impotent minority sec- 

 tion in any event, unable to protect a single 

 Southern right or to defend a single Southern 

 interest. 



" But, says the gentleman, under the opera- 

 tions of these amendments the South have a 

 representation not in proportion to the con- 

 stituency which elect them, and the States of 

 South Carolina, and Mississippi, and Alabama, 

 have much more power than twice the num- 



