The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1868-01-09
Thad. Stevens VS.. Brooks.
A SHARP RETORT.


The following is the answer of Mr..
Stevens to the remarks of Mr.. Brooks
on the bill from the Reconstruction
COmmittee-remarks which the
speaker of them has not allowed to
be printed in the Globe:
Mr.. Stevens, of Pennsylvania. Mr..
Speaker, [ have listened with very
great pleasure (as I always dO) to the
golden-mOuthed gentleman from New
York (dr. BrOOks), in his attempt to
prove the Bible a lie. That book SAYS
that God created "of one blood all the
nations Of the earth" The gentleman
from New York, however, contends
that there were several different Vari-
cites, and that all nations were not
created Of one blood. The question
thus at issue between the gentleman
of New York and the author of that
sacred volume, I shall not attempt to
decide. It is too high for me. But,
sir, the gentleman has given us a his
tory of the negro race from, I believe,
the time of the Queen Of Sheba.
am not quite sure whether he in
cluded her i'll the race or not. But
going over the whole field from that
time to this, he has, I think, very
well described the shape of the ne
grO's foot, the crook of his ancle, the
contour of his face. And then the
gentleman went on to consider the in
tellect of the negro.
Now, does the gentleman by all
this mean to say that the sons of
EthiOpia-of whom the great poet
Of antiquity speaks as the "blameless
sons of Ethiopia, among whom the
gods always retired when they wished
to spend an innocent and quiet
hOur''-have not immortal souls; that
they are to be classed among Ethe
beasts that perish" and that God, who
is tojudge them, will not damn him
ifhe deserves it? laughter I am
sorry, ifsuch has come to be the con-
dition Of that race in this country. I
had thought that the members ofthat
race had shown in our day some evil
dence Ofstrength and power. To be
sure, 1 look upon them as barbarians,
for having with their own right
hands, in defence of liberty, stricken
down thousands of the friends of the
gentleman who has been enIightening
us to-day. Laughter This conduct
on their part, did, confess, show cru
city and barbarism which is perhaps
hard to excuse. But the gentleman
must recollect that all are not equally
mild in their demeanOr, and that even
the Whtte.man might have done the
same thing, had h e been in similar
condition.
AS to intellect, there are various
degrees of it. In that regard the gen
tleman from New York towers above
the rest Of us, though, I fear, he
sometimes abuses his superiority by
the defamation which ne travels out
Of his road to inflict upon US, with
regard to the various nations of the
earth. Bat that in intellectual gifts
the gentleman stands above all of us,
no man who has heard him to-day,
or heretofore, can deny; and l do not,
I assure you, sir, speak this ironically
laughter; for I do not know when / |
have heard anything so eloquent as
the discourse which the learned gen
tleman has given US to-day. But l
have one proposition to make. For
the OratOrical championship of Amer /
lea I am willing to match Fred. Doug
los or 7 T,9noStOn 9UaiDSt the OnDtInDoa,, |
of New York. 1 will allow the latter
gentleman to select two out of threeof
the judges Let the topic be any
thing the gentleman pleases, except |
the nego's shin laughter and if at
the end of the discussion he does not /
"thrOw up the sponge, I will admit
that the negro is an inferior animal
not only inferior to the gentleman of
New York, but inferior to the rest of
US. Laughter
I call the previous question.