Daily Democrat and news. [volume] (Davenport, Iowa) 1859-1864, 1862-06-06

The Abolition Schemes 81 Negro
Equality 1xlssse -.
Speech of Honorable ". a. Richard
: son. of Illinois, in tie House Of Re-
kprs) eHsa1Des, Mavs1s, 1862.
a(cSna6s~td.) !
auxAtAr .soRone RECEIVE EMPLOY.
xxffro me fxcLUsSoT OF WHITE
CITIZENS.
In this District you have abolished
slavery. You have abolished it by COM
pensation, by adding 100000 to the
national debt, and . tax of on, 600 to
be paid annually, as interest upon this
sum, by taxes imposed on laboring
white people Of these States. Not salts
fed with doing this much for your es
pecial favorite, you extend The freedom
Of this city and the hospitality Of the
government to all the runaway negroes
in the country who choose to visit the
District ofColumbia. You issue rations
to them day after day, and week after
week, rations which must be paid for
through the sweat and toll Of tax.ridden
white mes. You are thus supporting in
Incidence hundreds upon hundreds Of
black men. How many and ct What
cost l am unable to state, because when
resolution asking for this information
was introduced by the honorable gentle
man from Ohio [Mr. Cox il was i'm
n edlately tabled BY the Republican ma
iority upon the other side Of this House.
Those gentlemen dare not let this To-
formation 60 to the country they shrink
from the exposure which truthful reply
to such an inquiry would make. The
resolution Of Mr.. Cox also asked for the
number of negroes employed Is teams.
tiers in the army, and at what wages;
but this was equally Objectionable, tor it
would have illustrated the fact that ne.
groes by the hundred are receiving bet
ter pay as drivers than our own white
sons and brothers are for periling their
lives as soldiers in the defence Of the
Union and the Constitution.
Haying been thus deprived of obtain
ing official information upon these ques-
tons, l am obliged to gather my statis
tics from such sources as / can. ]
shall make no statement that have not
reoeivek from respectable and RESPONSE
BILE parties, and none which do not
conceive to be rather under than over
the true estimate.
The government is to>day isauiug ra.
tions to about two thousand negroes in
this district alone, that cost over twenty
cents per ration-$4O0 per day, in vio-
lation Of law, is being paid for this pur-
pose. The government is hiring in the
District several hundred negroes, some
as teamstsrs aad some for other pnr-
poses, to the exclusion of white labor
ers, thousands Of whom, together with
their wives and children, in our large
cities are suffering for want Of employ
ment. l speak advisedly when l say
that the Republican party are already
paying; Of tax-gathered money, in this
District alone, over three hundred thou
sand dollars per annum to buy, clothe,
feed, and cxslt the African race. Thus
tor the negro you expend more in asin-
gle year in the District of Columbia
than you appropriate for the government
and protection of all the people 10 all
the organized territories Of the United
States. The negro is made superior, in
your legislation, to the pioneer white
men that settle the Great West, and
amid hardships and dangers, lay the
foundations of new commonwealth /;
the hardest and nOblest men of our
common country.
So the people are taxed yearly more
for the benefit OF the black race in this
District alone that it costs to maintain
the burdens Of State government in
either Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Wis.
consin, Maine, New Hampshire, Yer
mont, Connecticut, Rhode, Islond, New
Jersey, Delaware or Maryland.
ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS PER
DAY EXPENDED ON LAZY NEGROES.
But it is not IN this District alone
that you require the people to pay trib.
ute to the idol Of your affections.
Wherever you fod our army, with that
hundreds Of rations arc being issued
daily to unemployed negroes who rem.
devious in and about the camps
wherever the army is they are being
employed in various capacities at good
wages, and to the utter exclusion of white
labor that now languishes in irksome
idlencss throughout our country. l
state, therefore, and l think tru,hfully,
that the government is already paying
100000 per day for the support and
employment Of Ecgroes-paoing it, too,
out OF money raised through the toll,
deprivations and taxation of our own
kilh and kin.
In my district, Mr.. Chairman, my con-
stitrents are selling corn at eight cents
per bushel in order to support thei,
families and maintain the order and in.
tcgrity OF our government. Shall money
thus raised and for such purpose be d.
verted to the entertainment of the A.
rican? Will my people, will the peole
anywhere, indorse the party and the Adj
ministration that thus seeks the eleva.
ton Of the negro even at the cost OF
ruin to their own race? GOAT esa
THE NEGRO PLACED UPoN AN HQuALrrY
WITH OUR SAILORS AND SOLDIERS.
svh a.