Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-06-02

A Blast Against Negro Equality
What the People are TO be faxed
for.
Speech of Hon. VIM. A. Richardson, in Commit
tee Of the Whole of the House Of Representa-
tires, May 10. 1862.
Mr.. Richardson. Mr. Chairman, desire this
morning to submit few remarks for the conside-
ration of the House and the country 1t is not
my purpose to discuss questions pertaining to the
amy already in the field, which, if judiciously
differed and managed. is able to crush out
the rebellion. | shall direct my attention,
therefore, TO the consideration of some of the
many new questions which are continually
arising during the progress Of this terrible civil
war.
Mr. Chairman, there is a manifest anxiety, an
overweening desire, persistent purpose upon the
part of prominent members of the dominant party
in this Government, to place upon terms of equal
ity and make participants with US in the rights of
American citizenship an inferior race The ne
gro race, which is incapable of either compre-
bending or maintaining any form of govern
ment-by whom liberty is interpreted as IL
centiousness-is sought TO be exalted, even at
the cost of the degradation of our own flesh
and blood.
We all remember with what intense satsfac-
tOh a recent order of the Secretary of State,
Mr.. Seward, one of the chief clerks of the
President, was received in certain quarters,
because it declared that no fugitive slave should
be retained in custody longer than thirty days,
unless ''by speciel order OF competent civil
thOrity."
That l may do no injustice to the head of
the State Department and his unwarranted as
sumption of power, / quote the following Off
cial paper itself:
DEPARTMENT OF STATE,l
Washington, Jan. %, 1862
SIR: The President of the United States being
satisfied that the following instructions contra
vene no law in force in this District, and that
they can be executed without waiting for legisla-
ton by Congress, am directed by him to convey
them TO you:
AS Marshal of the District of Columbia, you
will not receive into custody any persons claimed
to be held to service or labor within the District
or elsewhere, and not charged with any crime or
msdemeanor, unless upon arrest or commitment.
pursuant to law. as fugitives from such service or
labor; and YOU will not retain any such fugitives
in custody beyond a period of thirty days from
their arrest and commitment, unless by special
order of competent civil authority.
You will forthwith cause publication to be made
of this order, and at the expiration of ten days
thereirom you will apply the same TO all persons
so claimed to be held to service or labor and now
in your custody.
This order has relation to any arrests made
by military authority.
| am, sir. your obedient servant,
WILLIAM H. SEWARD.
While Mr. Seward was issuing this order for
general Jail delivery OF the negroes he was
also sending, under usurpation of power, and
in violation of the laws and the Constitution
hundreds of white men and women to fill the
cells of the prisons of this District and through
out the loyal States Against many of these
white men and white women thus incarcerated
by this despotic Secretary of State no charge
has ever been made; they are imprisoned without
the form authority of law, and thus the person
al liberty of the Caucasian is rutheSsly violated
while the African is most tenderly and carefully
guarded, even to the notification of State enact
ments and the national statutes. Let rumor
become current that negro has been deprived
of personal liberty-ether in this District or any
where else-and there are dozens of Republican
members upon this floor striving to obtain the
attention of the House while they may offer reso-
lutiOns nquiring by what law, by whom, when
and where these objects of their undivided affec-
tons may have been arrested. But never yet has
any of those phanthropc gentlemen made in
quiry for the law or the authority under which
white American citizens have been Kidnapped by
the State Department, dragged from their homes
and left to pine and die perchance, in of the
many Eastles which this Administration has es-
tablished.
1t is well known, sir, that if any white citizen,
perhaps father or brother, desires 10 visit a rela
tive acquaintance in the military service of this
Government, that he is obliged to secure "pass"
from some competent authority; and to obtain
this he is required upon his honor to declare his
loyalty and fidelity to the Government. But the
negro goes and comes within the lines of our ar
my, whether his destination be towards or from
the enemy; the color of the black man is his
passport, and is received as equivalent to the
pledge of honor and loyalty upon the part of
white person.
In this District you have abolished slavery.
You have abolished 1t by compensation, by adding
81 600 600 to the national debt, and tax of
S73 900 to be paid annually, as interest upon this
sum, by taxes imposed upon the laboring white
people of these States. Not satisfied with doing
this much for your especial 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 of Co
lumbia You issue rations to them dav after
day and week after week, rations which must be
paid for through the sweat and toll of tax-rdden
white men, You are thus supporting in Incidence
hundreds upon hundreds of black men. How
many and at what cost l am unable state, be-
cause when resolution asking for this informa-
ton was introduced by the honorable gentleman
from Ohio, Mr.. Cox, it was Immediately tabled
by the Republican minority upon the other side
of this House. These gentlemen dare not let
this information go to the country; they shrink
from the exposure which truthful reply to such
inquiry would make. The resolution of Mr. Cox
also asked for the number of negroes employed
as teamsters in the army, and at what wages;
but this was equally Objectionable, for it would
have illustrated the fact that negroes by the hun
dred are receiving better pay as drivers than our
own white sons and brothers are for perng their
lives as soldiers in the defense of the Union and
the Constitution.
Having been thus deprived of obtaining official
information upon these questions, | am obliged to
gather my statistics from such sources | can.
shall make no statement that / have not re-
ceived from respectable and responsible parties,
and none which do not conceive to be rather un-
der than over the true estimate
The Government is to-day issuing rations to
about two thousand negroes in this District alone,
that cost over twenty cents per ratiOn-$4OO per
day. in violation of law, is being paid for this pur
pose. The Government is hiring in the District
several hundred negroes, some teamsters and
some for other purposes to the exclusion OF white
laborers, thousands of whom together with their
wives and children, in our large cities are suffer
ing for the want of employment. speak advis-
eddy when | say that the Republican party are
already paying, of axgathered money. in this
District alone, over three thousand dollars per
annum to buy, clothe, feed and exalt the African
race Thus for the negro you expend more in
single year in the District of Columbia than you
appropriate for the government aud protection of
ali the people in 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 W est, and, amid hardships and
dangers, lay the foundations of new common
wealths; the hardest and noblest men of our