Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-03-23
Mr.. RETELS SPEECH.

Tie speech of Mr.. Revels, the colored
Senator from Mississippi, delivered in the
United States Senate ON the 10th, will be
read with interest The following is the
substance of his remarks. After abiding
briefly to the very peculiar circumstances
under which he addressed the Senate he
said:
Il stand to-day on this floor to appeal for
protection from the strong arm of the Govern
ment for her loyal citizens, irrespective of
color or race, who are citizens OF Southern
States, and particularly Of the great State OF
Georgia. | am well aware, sir that the idea
is absurd that antagoni>m exists between the
whites and black>-that the race which the
nation raised from the degradation of slavery.
and endowed with full and unqualified rights
ard privileges of citizenship, are int, nj upon
getting power. at whatever p'lcc II can be
gained. 1t has been the wel-considered pur
pose of Il class not confined to the South to
spread this charge over the land, and as Wig
orous efforts are made to-day to educate the
people of this nation into that belief as were
made at the close OF the war. 1t was not un-
common To find this same class. even during
the rebellion, prognosticating Il scrvile war.
1t nav have been that the wish was the father
of the thought. and, sir, as the recognized
representative of my down-trodden people, /
DENY the charge and hurl il back into the
teeth of those who make it, and who, be-
lieve, have not a true and conScctious desire
to further the interests of the whole Soutl
Certainly any one possessing any knowledge
of the colored population of my own. or any
other State, need not be reminded of the no.
Bile conduct of that people under the mosttry-
ing circumstances in the history of the whole
l. l. /
of the Federal forccs-whilc 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 defenceess and in the power of the
blacks, upon whom the chains of slavery were
still riveted; and to bind those chains closer
was the real issue for which much life. and
property was sacrificed; and now, sir | ask,
how did that race act? Did they, in those
days OF Confederate weakness and impotence,
eVince the indignity of which we hear so
much? Granting, for the sake of argument,
that they were ignorant and hcsottod, which |
do not bclivc, yet with all their supposed ig
norance and creduliry they in their way I'M
derstood, us fully as you or |. the awful i'm
/ port of the contest. They knew. if the gallant
corps of national soldiers were beaten back
and the flag traicd in the dust. that il was the
prcsagc of still heavier bondage. They longcd.
too. as their fathers did before them. for the
advent of that epoch over which was shed the
hallowed light OF inspiration itself. Trey de-
sired, too, with their fathers, to welcome the
feet of strangers shod with peaceful prcpa>a-
ton Of good news. Weary years of bondage
/ had told their tale of sorrow to the court of
| Heaven. In the council, of the Great Father
of all, they knew the adjudication OF their
case, albeit delayed for years, which patient
suffering had nearly exhausted it, elf, would in
the end bring them the boon for which they
sighed-God's most blessed gift to his crea-
lures the incstimable boon of liberty. They
waited, and waited patiently. In the absence
of their master they protected the virtue and
chastity Of detcnceless woman. think, sir, FOR
a moment, what the condition of ,his land
would be to-day, if the slave population bad
risen in seryie insurrcctiona against those who.
month by month, were fighting to perpetuatc
that institution which brought them all the
evils of which they complained. Where would
have been security for property, female chas-
tity and chidhoods innocence? The bloody
counterpart of such story of cruelty and
wrong would have been paralleled only in
those chapters of Jewish history such us arc
recorded by Josephus, or in the still later
atrocities Of that reign of terror which sent
the Emperor Louis XVI. and Mary Antoinette
to the scatfold Nay, the deeds in that drama
of cold boodcd butchery would have out
llerodcd the most diabolical acts of Herod
himself, Mr.. President, maintain that the
/ past record of my race is true index of the
feelings which to-day animate them. They bear
/ no revengeful thoughts, no animosiies; they
aim not to elevate themselves by sacrificing
one single interest of their white felowciti-
zens; they ask but the rights which are theirs
by Gods universal law, ard which are the
natural outgrowth and logical sequence ofthe
I condition in which the legislative enactments