The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1870-03-31
VOLUME 5---NO. 40.
First Speech Of Reyels, the colored Senator
from Mississippi.

First Speech Of Reyels, the colored Senator
from Mississippi
Senator Revels, Of Mississippi. mads his dr.
but as speaker in the United States Senate ON
the 10th inst. The galleries were crowded with
anxious spectators, listening to the first speech
ever uttered in that place by person of Ahi-
can descent. We quote the most striking pas.
sages of this notable effort:
am well aware, sir, that the idea il abroad
that an antogonism exists between the whites
and blacks; that that race which tho nation
raised from the degradation of slavery and en-:
dowed with full and unqualified rights and
privileges of citizenship, are intent upon pow
er, at whatever price it can be gained. 1t has
been the well-considered purpose and aim of q
class not confined to the South, to spread this
charge over the land, and their efforts are as
vigorous to-day to educate the people of this
nation into that belief as they we're at the close
of the war. 1t was not uncommon to find this
same class, even during the rebellion, prognos-
ticating servile war. 1t may have been that
the wish was father to the thought; and, sir, as
the recognized representative of my lown-trod-
den people, deny the charge, and hurl it back
into the teeth of those who make it, and who,
Y,
sire to further the interests of the whole South:
Certainly, any one possessing knowledge Of
the colored population of my own or any other
State, need not be reminded of the noble con-
duct of that people under the most trying Cir
cumstances in the history of the late war, wheh
they were beyond the protection of the Federal
forces.
While the Confederate army pressed into its
ranks every white male capable of bearing
arms, the mothers wives, daughters and sisters
of the Southern soldiers were left defenceless
and In the power of the blacks, upon whom the
chains of slavery were still riveted and to
bind those chains the closer was the real issue
for which SO much Life and property were sacri.
feed. And now, sir, I ask, how did that race
act2 Did they, in those days of Confederate
weakness and impotence, evince the malignity
of which we hear so much? Granting, for the
sake of argument, that they were ignorant and
besotted, which I do not believe, yet with all
their supposedignorance and supposed creduli-
ty, they, in their way, understood as fully al
YOU or l the awful import of the contest.
They knew that if the gallant corps of native
soldiers were beaten back, and their aag trailed
in the dust, that it was the presage of still
heavier bondage. They longed, too; as their
fathers did before them, for the event OF that
epoch over which was shed the hallowed light
Of inspiration ITSELF They desired too, with
their fathers, to welcome the feet of the stran::
gers shod with the peaceful preparation Of good
news. Weary years Of bondage had told their
tale of sorrow to the Court of Heaven. In ths
councils of the Great Father of All they knew
the adjudication of their case, albeit delayed
for years, in which patient suffering had nearly
exhausted ITSELF would, in the end, bring them
the boon for which they sighed-God's most
blessed gift to his creatures-the inestimable
boon of liberty. They waited, and they waited
patiently. In the absence of their masters they
protected the virtue and chastity of defenceles
women.
Think; sir, for d moment what the condition
of this land would be to-day if the slave popu-
lation had risen in servile insurrection against
those who, month by month, were fighting to
perpetuate that institution which brought them
all the evils of which they complained Where
would have been the security for property, fe-
male chastity and childhoods innocence9 The
bloody counterpart of such a story of cruelty
and wrong would have been paralleled only in
those chapters of Jewish history as recorded by
Josephus, or in the still later atrocities of that
reign of terror which sent the unforturats
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette to the scafz
fold. Nay, the deeds in that drama of cold
blooaed butehery would have out-heroded the
most diabolical acts of Herod himself.
Mr.. President, I maintain that the past record
of my race is true index ofthe feelings which
to-day animate them. They bear toward their
former masters no revengeful thoughts, no ha-
tired, no animosities. They aim not to elevate
themselves by sacrificing one single interest of
their white fellow,citizet1s; they ask but the
rights which are theirs by Gods universal law,
and which are the natural outgrowth, the logi-
- tbo rrh1p fbo Eoor-
islative attachments of this nation have placed
them. They appeal to you and to me to see
that they receive that protection which alone
will enable them to pursue their daily vOcations
with success, and enjoy the liberties of citizen
ship on the same footing with their white nsish-
bors and friends.
And here let me say further that the people
of the North owe to the colored race deep OBJ
legation which it is no easy matter to fulfill.
When the Federal armies were thinned by
death and disaster, and sombre clouds over
hung the length and breadth of the republic,
and The very air was pregnant with the rumors
of foreign interference-in those dark days Of
defeat, whose memories yet haunt us as an ug-
ly dream-from what source did our nation in
its seeming death throes gain additional and
new-found power? 1t was the sable sons of the
South that valiantly rushed to the rescue, and
but Tor their lntreplulCy anu aruenG caring
many a Northern ireside would miss to-day
paternal counsel or brothers love. Sir, l re-
peat the fact, that the colored race saved to the
noble women of New England and the Middle
States the men on whom they lean to-day for
security and safety. Many of my race, the rep
resentatives of these men on the field of battle,
sleep in the countless graves of the South IF
those quiet resting-places of our honored dead
could speak to-day S, what naga mighty VOICE voice like to
up from these scpulchral honest Could ws
resist the eloquent pleading of their appealY
All, sir, think that this question of immediate
and ample protection for the loyal people of
Georgia would lose its legal technicalities, and
we would cease to hesitate in our provisions for
their instant relief.
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