Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1864-05-25

travels alone, at all events not in compar7
with ladies, when he takes mis- carpet bag and
goes down to the depot in this city 10 take
passage for New York. He cannot take a
! seat in some of the cars, for they are assign
ed to ladies and those with them when he
+ enters the where l. dies are seated d
/ young gentleman stationed there says TO him,
I =" No sir; though you are very good looking,
i you cannot come into this car; you must pass
: along and take a seat in another car" There
+ is no more abridgment of the right of colored
people riding in the cars here than there is
/ an abridgment of the right of my honorable
/ friend from Massachusetts every time he goes
over in New York. There are certain cars
/ into which he cannot go unless under the
protection-and it Is protection that is worth
something, | assure my honorable friend-of
a good lady. [Laughter.l
Mr.. President, there is another kindred
proposition to which | should like TO refer for
Il moment. The honorable Senator from
Maine, (Mr. Fessenden,) who has charge of
the affairs of the Committee on Finance, has
no business to propose, and the honorable
Senator from Massachusetts, (Mr. Wilson, has
nothing to propose from the Committee on
Military Affairs, and hence | feel at liberty to
take up little more tine than | should I'M
der other circumstances. As | am on the
/ subject of personal explanations, / may as
Wei 20 through the NuOIt Duu1tI Ut OIiCt,
aud not trouble the Senate on any other occa-
sion. When the question of raising the pay
of the negro troops, and putting them on the
same footing with the white troops was I'M
der consideration, short time since, | did
not object to raise their pay. But | had the
honor of submitting proposition that three
dollars per month of the wages of those
troops raised in the insurrectiOnary districts
should be reserved for the purpose of enable
ing the Government to take of and pro-
vide for negro women and children coming
within the lines of our armies. | did not pro
pose to apply it to the cOored soldiers of
Massachusetts or Pennsylvania or New Jer
sey, or any of the States where they live with
their families and have been accustomed to
provide for and take care of them, but to ap-
ply it to the insurrectionary districts only, to
those portions of the country where the ne
grOes have lived III state of slavery, where
they have never had the responsibility of
taking care of their wives and children, be-
cause they have been provided for by their
masters. Those cOlored soldiers in the main
have been altogether unaccustomed to the
use of money. In my judgment, the amount
of money you give them only determines how
much shall go into the hands of the suffers
that follow those regiments. The great mass
of them first set free, unaccustomed to the
use Of money, have not much more Of that
prudence necessary 10 take care d money
than Indians.
The proposition denounced by some as
ungcnerous, and by some newspapers / have
been held up and denounced as pro-slavery
in my sympathies, because | would use part
Of their wages to feed and clothe their starry
ing women and children. 1t was because |
had sympathy for these poor people, the col
ored women and children coming within our
lines, who are dying by scores, by hundreds,
and by thousands, that | wished to retain
some portion of the wages of the negro men
who come in with them to provide for their
necessities.
1t is no sufficient answer 10 me for gentle
men to say these women and children are not
the legal wives and legitimate children of
these soldiers They are their women and
their children. They are of their race, and
it would be ungenerous in them if they should
object to giving portion of their wages to
save them from suffering, disease and death