The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1874-06-11
SPEEGH
OF
Hon. JAMES A. ALCORN,
OF MISSISSIPPI
In the Senate of the United States,
May y, 1874.
SPEECH

But it has been said that this bill i
passed by Congress will bring about socia
equality; that this law is degrading to the
white race. | deny this. Society exist:
and is governed by its own laws They
are unwritten, but they are none the les:
determinediy maintained The Senator
from New jersey (Mr. Stockton) this
morning said that it brought the degraded
race to level with that of the most exalt-
ed. do not quote his language but the
idea. That is true as far as law can make
it SO. The war in one fell swoop leveled
all distinctions between the most exalted
citizen and the humbest slave from whose
limbs the shackles fell by the touch Of the
emancipation proclamation. To-day we
stand one people equal before the law
There is no middle ground to occupy.
But, says the Senator from New Jersey,
you invade burial grounds Well, sir,
we say that he shalt have the right OF
burial IN public burial ground. Suppose
Il citizen Of nay State having travelled here,
the right Of travel being guaranteed to
him, bias reached the city OF Washington
and after arriving here dies, where will
you bury him? You cannot 90 into a
private burying-ground for the purpose of
finding resting-place. You cannot go
on the private property Of any citizen and
say ''we will bury him here. Where
shall the colored man find burial place?
Not in a private battle-ground. o no;
he cannot 90 there. Not on private prop
erty; he cannot 90 there. Well, are we
to be told that the Congress of the United
States shall not have power to declare
that this man shall have a right of burial
in public burial ground of the District
Of Columbia This Is strange Govern
ment if the Congress Of the United States
cannot guarantee to the citizen this right;
and that is all that there is in that pro-
vision Of the bill; simply that in public
cemeteries, ground kept up by taxation,
owned by companies that are chartered,
and are protected by the law, the colored
man shall have a right to be buried the
same as a white man. Suppose this
burial ground shall be invaded by mob
violence and you call on the militia to
protect it, who is called upon? The citi-
zen of the United States, the posse contjta-
tbs, or the militia if YOU please, and the
colored man composes Il part of these. The
colored man is called upon to come for
ward and bare his bosom to the danger
of protecting this public property, for the
public property is under the protection Of
the Government. He must 90 there to
defend it. Shall a law exist that he shall
not be buried there if he should fall in
the act of protecting the property itself?
Does it not belong to the Government OF
the United States when his right is
contested to declare that in the public
burial ground he shall have the right Of
burial?
Mr. President, the South does itself
injustice when it comes here to make OBJ
lection to this bill upon the clause which
| have mentioned. In many an old fam
lily burial ground in the South you will
find tablet erected to the memory of
some faithful servant, some faithful slave
who served the family in days past, and
has now gone to rest, resting there in the
battle-ground by the side Of the members
of the once happy family. Throughout
all the land you eau find the evidence of
the affection that existed between the
races in the days of slavery All, Mr.
President, | said to you awhile ago that
| was born in the midst of slavery. \ es,
sir, | was. | was transferred to the arms
of colored nurse. drew in my infancy
from the bosom of that colored nurse the
upon which [ fattened and
grew. That colored nurse watched over
my childhood. She watched me in my
early manhood She lives to-day in my
own family, Il favorite member Of that
family, having belonged 10 four genera
tions Of my race as slave. In her de-
crepit old age she is led by my little chill
dren, who love her as [ loved her, whose
hearts dwell with her as mine ever dwelt.
Shall | say that when she dies | would be
dishonored were her remains to be placed
in my battle-ground? All, no sir, for
her aged husband who lived with her for
fifty years, a faithful and affectionate SER
want of my ancestors, and who died before
the war began, rests to-day in the family
burial ground, near where my honored
father and mother sleep.
Mr. President, slavery is forever dead.
Though flowers may not be strewn upon
its tomb as they were on the tomb of Nero,
freedom can well afford to bend over
it and pay its memory the tribute of JUS
tice.
The Southern people were not more re-
sponsibIe for slavery than were the people
of the North. Born stakeholder, | was
no more responsible for the institution
than the man who was born in Massachu-
sets. 1t was an institution of the coun-
try; it belonged to the nation; it was pro-
tected by the laws OF the land-a proper
ty that had been established in the color
ed man by our forefathers. Eight
wears ago we find that Indiana,
though it was as Territory by the Ordi-
nance Of 1887, possessed one hundred
and ninety slaves; we find that the State
of New Hampshire had one hundred and
fifty-eight slaves; Rhode Island had one
thousand slaves; Connecticut had three
thousand slaves; Pennsylvania had four
thousand slaves; New Jersey had eleven
thousand slaves, and New York had
twentv-one thousand slaves. These slaves
were not set free. They under the law
of the land were sold to the people of the
South, and they were sold as barbarians,
and they were a ,barbarous race at the
time they came TO the South; and | may
say we can trace our origin to barbarous
races. They were held by the South for
from fifty to seventy years as slaves; they
were christianlzed, they We're civilized,
and when they were made free this nation,
which had in its keeping the protection
of the liberties Of the people, declared
that they had been SO far civilized under
the refining teachings and influences of
the Southern people as to be entitled to
the high prerogative of citizens of this
nation. They were admitted as citizens,
and it was compliment; it spoke much
for the teachings of slavery and for the
peculiar institution of the Southern States;
and to-day if you of the North can take
as an equal the man who has been my
I