Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1866-01-24
REMARKS OF HON. 6. W. SO0FIELD,
On the District Of Columbia Suffrage Bill.


The SPEAKER a motion to amend is
not In order pending the motion to recon-
NIT.
Mr. HALE Ny motion is to amend by
adding instructions.
The SPEAKER Such motion is in order.
Mr. HALE. / move to amend the motion
of the gentleman from Iowa MIR. Wilson,
by adding to that motion an instruction to
the committee to amend the bill so as 10 ex-
tend the right of suffrage in the District of
Columbia to all persons coming within eth
er of the following classes, irrespective of
caste or color, but subject only to existing
provisions and qualifications other than
those founded on caste or color, to wit:
|. Those who can read the Constitution
of the United States;
2. Those who are assessed for and pay taxes
on real or personal property within the
| District
3. Those who have served in and been
honorably discharged FROM the military or
naval service of the United States
And to restrict such right of suffrage to
the classes above named, and to include
proper provisions excluding from the right
of suffrage those who have borne arms
against the United States during the late
rebellion, or given aid and comfort to said
rebellion.
The question then being upon the amend
ment offered by Mr.. Hale.
Mr.. SCoFIELD. Mr.. Speaker, the color
| ed population of the United States is now
| about five millions That is nearly double
the population of all New England, fully
one seventh of the entire population of the
| United States, and almost double the num-
Der that carried this country through sew
en- years war with the greatest military
Power in the world.
What shall be done with these five mil
| lion people Colonize them? Where and
when To Africa? Liberia is the most
| desirable and accessible part of that country,
but that colony Is now more than forty
| years DID, and its emigrant population Is
only seven or eight thousand. Some ten
thousand, in all, have been taken there,
but from twenty to thirty per cent of that
number died during the period OF accllma-
tion. To land five million men, women,
and children upon this miasmatic coast,
without houses, roads or improved lands
would be murder by the million. The origi
nal kidnapping and importation of slaves to
| this country was very merciful and Chris
| tian business compared with such an exodus
| aSt his. But if we were wicked enough to
| embark in such cruel enterprise we could
not accomplish it. Calculate the expense,
to say nothing of suffering, of collecting the
entire population of Ohio, Indiana, and
Illinois and taking them to the Atlantic
coast compute the expense OF transporta-
tion for such a nation across the Atlantic,
and to these sums add the cost of houses,
roads, clearings, stock, and temporary main
tenance in that unhealthy climate, and you
will have bill too great for the resources
| of the country, even If we were not In debt.
But to gather up and colonize the scattered
and unwilling colored population, almost
| al ha
undertaking.
Colonize them in Mexico, then, it is said
The expense might be few million less,
but still far beyond the present resources
and strained credit of the Government,
Other obstacles would intervene. Mexico
has eight million five hundred thousand pop
ulation now. Where could you thrust five
million more in that uninviting land of end
less war? Beside, if this vast population is
as undesirable as Is represented, they would
be nearly as offensive to the people of Mexi-
co as it is said they ought to be to US, and
our unchristian purpose would be defeated
by the kindred preiudices of that nation.
Colonize them, then, in some of our western
Territories The expense and injustice of
this undertaking would be considerably less,
but it would be just no colonization at all.
They would soon be surrounded by our ad-
vancing millions, and left in the very heart
of the country from which you desire to ex-
pei them.
The whole scheme of colonization is so
far beyond the present ability of the Gov
ernment so destructive to the productive
interest of the country, so inhuman and un-
just toward the people whose unpaid laborhas
added so much to the wealth and comfort of
the nation, and whose valor and patriotism
has helped to sustain it in its late life -strug-
gle, and so impracticable and impossible,
even if it was right, that its advocates can
scarcely expect to be credited with sense
and sincerity at the same time. The thought
less may be sincere, but the knowing ones
can only design to distract the attention of
| the people from the consideration of other
| propositions and necessities And if coloni-
zation were practicable what would become
of the old theory urged by pro-slavery di-
vines and politicians, who are for the most
part the present advocates of colonization,
! that white men could not labor in the warm
ATTITUDES of the South? Do they propose
now, in sending off the only possible labor
| ers there, according to their theory, to aban-
don the culture of the South altogether? or
do they confess they were only trying to
cheat the people into the support of cruel
institution by false logic then, as they are
trying to delude them with false theories
now? Ifyou mean to try colonization why
not begin it at once? The longer you delay
the more numerous will be these people,
| and the more determined to stay. Bring
| in your bill and let us see the details. How
many billions of new bonds must be put
upon the market, how large an army will be
asked, how many ships viii be needed, and
how many years will it take to effect the ex-
puision? What, in the meanwhile, is the
wolrd to do for cotton? What shall be done
with the unwilling and the fugitives? VIII