Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1874-06-16

speaker, tney WOulu Talk ana Ieel eV-
erywhere if they were not imposed up
on by demagogues- who want to use
them for political purposes, and who
have no regard and sympathy for them
when they have served their purpose.
Sir, / have some feeling upon this
subject; l have right 10 this feeling.
The colored people of my district met
in convention on the lst day of last
May and endorsed my course in Con-
gress, as they have done on many oc-
Isions, and j will not do an act nor
permit an act to be done that i
believe before God and my
country will destroy the schools for
the c0lored children and the poor chill
dren of my race; for if the colored chill
dron are deprived OF the common
schools, the same causes will deprive
the poor white children.
Mr.. Speaker, we are told that it is
prejudice, and that if we pass the bill
the whites and blacks will send their
children TO the same schools and all
will go well. Suppose we grant that
it is prejudice. Should we not legis-
late with a view to that prejudice? IT
is a great existing fact that We must
meet. and meet il like men. To say
that we can make laws, as if that fact
did not exist, to benefit the race that
the prejudice exists against, is state
ment that / must dissent from.
Mr.. Speaker, let us look into the bill
and examine its provisions. Let me
say here that L sincerely doubt the
right of Congress to pass such all AFT.
Sir l have never been what is com
monty known as States-rights man
as understood by the Southern States,
bit all must confess that STATES have
some rights, and it is better for all that
these rights be reserved 40 these States.
While we preserve the rights that be-
long to The States We must not forget
individual rights; they are far more
important than State-rights. | will
rot attempt to discuss the cOnstitI.-
tionalty of the bill, even if / had time
as doubtless the law will be tested very
soon after il shall have been executed
or attempted to be executed. and as
there seems to be such diversity CT
opinion upon the question, nothing
short of judicial investigation will
determine the same. ! see nothing in
the bill except the mixed school feature
Tut what the colored penrle are now
entitled to nd are enjoy ing under the
T. institution and laws of II, co IGtry. L
might question the right of Congress
to define who may be jurors in State
Court, but as the State law of the State
that l in part represent have made no
distinction on account of race or color,
| will not stop to discuss that pIOposi-
ton. Nevertheless it will stiike many,
even republicans, wi Ii much doubt,
To say the least, of its cOnStitutiOnality.
| have always believed il was just and
right for railroad companies if they
charg d a colored person first-class fare
to give him and his wife and children
as good Accommodations as any one. and
most of the railroad companies have
provided cars equal to the best for the
accommodation of the cnlored travel |
ers and no one objects The colored
people do not want to he put in ears
with the whites; that is not what they
complain of; it was that they had to
pay first-class fare and he put in sec
Ond or third class cars, mixed up Of
ten with drunken rOwdies, smoking
and using vulgar Language in the pre-
sence of their wives and daug HERS
This is wrong, and no just man will
say otherwise
As to hotels, the laws regulate them
much better than C0ngrt SIS can. The
col0red people do not want to eat and
sleep with the whites; they want, if a
hOtel-keeper charges them as much as
he charges the white guests, to have
a. good bed and as good diet, and that
certainly is just and right. And have
heard of no complaint in my State
| finG in travelling along the railroads
that when the trains stop at the eating
houses table is provided for the col
Ored passengers, supplied with the
same eatables and served hy the same
servants as the whites. and they all pay
the same price, and both seem content.
These things are we'll defined and I'M
deIStood hy both white and black :;
they have become u.s. d 20 them, and no
I'll or bad feelings exists between them.
and if the cclored people were left alone
and not tempered with by those who
are not their friends, who only excite
them and prejudice them against the
whites, all would go on smoothly. In
addition to few white demagOgues.
there are few colored men in my dis
trict who assume to be leaders of the
colored race. and an occasional preach
er who wants the whites and blacks to
intermarry, and to have no regard for
riage, which laws were enacted for the
benefit of both races, and all seemed
satisfied with the law when it was pro-
mulgated as forever fixing the status
of the white and cOlored marital rela-
tons in Tennessee. and as the law
punishe the white for inteIma r ing
with the blacks just the same as il did
the blacks for iEtermarrying with the
In N oi
The law was tested in the Supreme
Court of the United States, and that
court held, as the law punished both
alike, it was in strict conformity TO the
civil-rights bill.
Now, Mr.. Speaker, upon that con-
dition of affairs the republican party
have stood in my State. We have
proclaimed TO the world we were con-
tent. But sir, when few weeks since
it was resolved, in q convention at
Nashville, the capitol of my State, held
by our cOlored people. that they were
determined to have a different rule,
and proposed to, and did as | now re-
member, raise a fund to bring a case to
the Supreme Court of the United
States and test the question whether a
colored man could not take to himself
white woman for wife and violate
no law, and that the civil-rtghts law
did override our State law, our whole
people, regardless of party affiliations,
were startled at the announcement, as
it was a departure from all that had
been said by the advocates of the color
Ell people from the first step taken to
advance and educate them up to the
assembling of that convention.
Sir, if that doctrine had been pro-
claimed in 1865 the eolored people in
my State would have been isOla'ed
and alone. The boldest white man of
the bold would not have dared TO ad-
vOcate the doctrine of intermarriage of
the blacks and the whites, and if that
is the ultimatum of the cOlored race
their best friends in Tennessee and
several of the other Southern States
must bid them adieu.
Mr., Speaker, l do not believe that
said convention at Nashville spoke
the sentiments of the colOred people OF
- IL. xvraT tn