New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1874-02-05

j
me"-would he expect me to tell him tina
when l had him down under my foot, will
his hands tied and the lash in nv han,
flashing his back--would he tell me that. il
conscience, would be doing Justice to him
Oh, no, no! And yet such was the condi
ton in which he had my race. Why. sir
the whipping-post, the thumb-screw. an,
the lash, were the great means of educa
ton in the South These were the school
houses, these were the academies, thes,
were the great instruments of education, 0
which the gentleman boasts, for the purpose
of bringing these barbarians into civilization
lApplause.l When men boast, they ought
to have something 70 boaat of. When
boast, Mr.. Speaker, shall boast of some
noble deed. l will boast not of the wrongs
inflicted upon the weak; l will boast not O
the Outragcs inflicted upon the INDECENT;
will not boast, Mr.. Speaker, of lashing the
weak and trampling under foot any class o.
| people who ought to have my sympathy, mol
/ will l reproach them for being ignorant
when they have been Kept away from every
means to educate thein.g
He says we are not ready for it, How
long would it have taken us to get read,
under their kind Of teaching? How long
o Lord, how long! Laughter and ap.
plausc.] How long would it have taken to
educate us under the thumb-scrcw, to cdu-
cate us with the whip, TO educate us with
the lash, with instruments of torture, to
educate us withouta home? How long would
| ii have taken to educate us under their sys-
tenn? We had no wives we had no chill
dren; they belonged to the gentleman and
his class. We were homeless, we were
| friendless, although those Stars and Stripes
hanging over your head, MIR. Speaker, ought
to ho. Inn, Il
of the Declaration Of independence, in
itiated by the fathers of the Republic, that
all men are born free and equal, ought to
have been our protection. Yet they were
to us no stars Of hope, and the stripes were
only stripes of our condemnation.
The gentleman talked something. believe,
about buzzards or crows taking the place OF
our brave eagle. Sir, the crow would, l
think, more beautifully represent the contli-
ton of the South nOw-thc croaking bird
you know. They have been croakins ever
since the rebellion came on, and they have
been croaking against emancipation and the
Constitution ever since. They are nation
of crOakers, so to speak. Like the crow they
are cawing, cawing, cawing, oternaly cav
ing. [Great laughter Mr.. Speaker, YOU
will pardon me, for did not expect to speak
this morning.
1iS sSohtiIiitt.i Guys iNSip HE tt.lt
less for himself than any other race Of men
on earth and he instances the German. the
Irishman, the Scotchman, the Englshman,
and the Frcnchmau, as having done some
thing. But he forgcts the men of those
nationalltics come from stations which are
the proud, educated, refined, noble, atvanc-
ing nations Of the earth. lie forgcts that
those nations Of which he speaks, from which
those men have sprung, lave given, and arc
still giving, to the world some of the bright
est minds that ever adorned the galaxy OF
human intellect.
But he tells us that the negroes never pro.
duced anything. Well. sir, it may be that
| in the gentlcman's opinion negroes have
never produced anything. wonder if the
gentleman ever read hisi1sS. Did he evel
| hear tell of any persons OF the name of Han.
nibal, Of IlannO, of IIamilcar, Of Euclid
all great men of ancient times-of IEsops
and others? No, sir; no; for that kind OF
| literature does not come to North Carolina
| [Great laughtcr.l 1t grows, il fiourishes, on
the free mountain peaks and the academies
of the North. That kind of literature comes
to such men as Wendell Phillips, as Lloyd
Garrison, as Charles Sumner, as benjamin
Butler, and other distinguished men, men o!
the North, men that are thinkers, men that
do not croall, but let the eagle ever soal
high in the conception Of high ideas. They
are ideas that belong to q free people they
are not consistent with or cOnsonant with
slavery. No, sir; they donot tell the negro
of Euclid, the man that in his Joy cried ou
Eureka, l have found it ~ no, that is moi
the language for tie slave. No; that is not
the language they teach by the whip and
the thumb screw no, sir; il is not that.
But must pass Oh. The gentleman say.
that The black men in the South, since
eman:ipat "a and enlranchisemcnt, have
put bad men into Office. Well, sir, thai
may be true, and regret that we have pu
50 many bad men in Office. No one regrets
it molc than do, but they were not coloret
men after all. [Great laughter. They
were not black men, those bad men in Office
who have done SO much to deteriOrate the
value of the country. NOta all. Why, sir
they did not elect our distinguished friend
Mr.. VANCE, from North Carolina, by black
votes. They did not elect Mr.. Holman, OF
gentleman of such name, in North Caro-
lima. They did not run the State in debt
They were not the men who took the cash
they were simply mudsills who did the vO
ting, while another class of individuals die
the stealing. That is the difference.
Well, Mr.. Speaker, beg to say that WI
did the best we could; and one of the result:
of our education was that we had beer
taught to trust white men in the South. w
trusted them, and if they did wrong it wa
no fault of ours. Not at all. presume th'
gentleman who addressed the House to-da,
had some cOlOred constituents who voted FOL
him and sent him here. l will not dare t.
say, however, that he is a bad man. II,
may be one Of the very best OF men; but
think he has some very bad ideas, so far a.
my race is concerned. Applause
The gentleman says that this is a whit
mans land and government. He says it ha
been committed to them in sacred relation
ship. ] ask ius all conscience what become
of our black men and women and children
to the number of five millions have we NJ
rights: Ought We to have no privileges
ought we not to have the protection of tn
law? We did not ask any more. The gen
tlemau Aarps upon the idea Of social equality
Well, Sir, he has not had so much expert
ence of that rs l have had, Or as my rae
have had. We have some objections to so
cial equality ourselves, very grave ones
[Applause.] For even now, though free
dom has come, it is hard matter, a vcr
hard matter,ntO keep sacrcdly guarded til
precincts of sacred homes. But 1 will no
dwell upon that. The gentleman know
more about that than 1 do. [Laughter.]
The gentleman wishes that we should pre-
pare ourselves to go to Africa, or to th
West Indies, or somewhere else. 1 want
enunciate this doctrine upon this iloor-yo
brought us here, and here we are going
stay. (Applause.] We are not going on
foot or one inch from this land. Our nlothe,
and our fathers and our grandfathers an
great-grandfathers have died here. Here W
have sweated. Here we have toiled. Her