The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1881-04-29
not able to raise like sums.

| we nelO Incn1 LOT TWO or tNrCc genera
tions and we made their labor profit
able but some time after the trad
had ceased to be profitable and W,
We're prosperous those high mora
ideas that :he honorable Senator from
Maine referred to where he contrastet
i. civilization in New England founde.
on the Bible and the school-bo will
barbarism in the South, as he tcrmet
it-these moral ideas quickened thu
conscience of Massachusetts and New
England to such an extent that they
saw the horrors of slavery, aud a wal
| Went up over it and they were sc
shocked that they absolutely violated
the compact of the Constitution, and
their Senators will not deny it, in re
| fusing to carry out the agreement OF
Massachusetts when the Constitution
! was formed, that she would rende,
back to the owner his fugitive slave
when he went into your States. And
the honorable Senator from Maine tells
us ofa very disgracefnl scene there, as
he considers it, where the troops had
to be called out to the number of 2, ,00G
or some other large number, to execute
this law and return a poor negro back
to slavery again.
In the days when your fathers called
W
were proper traffic, that sympathy was
not so lively, conscience was not then
so Quickened. But though we had
bought the property, and paid you for
it, and owned it, and though it had
been condition precedent to the for
nation of the Union and the adoption
Of the Constitution that you would
agree to surrender flgitivcs to us when
they fled, and though you had agreed
to this, yet those high moral ideas of
civilization AS contrastcd with barbar-
ism rose to such Il sublime height
finally that You could not carry out
the compact, and your conscience
would not permit it.
Allow me to tell you that we charged
that broken compact on your part as
one of the reasons which we thought at
the time justified usin taking the steps
we took to try to defend slavery by
our strong arms, when you would not
keep that compact with us that you
had solemnly engaged to keep. The
war did cnsue, rs the Senator said,
and it resulted in the abolition OF
slavery. Your high moral ideas pre-
vailed. have again and again said
that outside Of the immense loss we
met there l am glad it is so but
bear in mind we are t;,untcd with onr
poverty now because we cannot edu-
cate the negro. Take your part Of the
tax on your shoulders and pay us the
two billion dollars that were lost in the
negro, after we had bought him from
you, and we will then be able to cdu-
cate him. AS a necessity of war you
sweep slavery from existence, you
take from us our property, you confis-
cate it, SO to speak for if the abolition
of slavery which was legal property un-
der the Constitution of tho United
States was not confiscation, it the tles-
truction of two billion dollars worth
Of property was not confiscation. when
you destroyed it without paying for it.,
what do you call coniiscation ? Trne,
you left us poor, very poor. We are
not able now to educate tho poor ne.
groes as they ought to be educated and
as we desire to educate them. Pay us
for them by taxing yourselves and we
win agree to appropriate every dollar Of
it to their education.
know we cannot. be paid under the
Constitution of the United States, and
| do not ask it. l am asking for no
tmpossibifity though, rs | stated the
other day, Mr.. Lincoln, in the kind
ness or his heart, ut the Hampton
Roads conference, did state that he
would then be willing for the appro-
priation of s:4oO, 200, 900 toward paying
for the slaves if the war could then
cease and the Union be restored. !
know it is out OF the question but /
do say it does not come with very
modest grace, to say the least of it, from
Il New England Senator on this floor to
get up and tell us that citizen of
Massachusetts should not vote until
he can read his ballot and that YOU
have made provision there for the edu-
cation of all the people, and then re-
fuse to apply the rule to us because we
are not able to educate them and taunt
us with our poverty. We were as rich
as you We're before you robbed us.
mean robbery in no offensive sense per-
sOnally simply mean that you had
sold the negroes to us, and under the
necessities of war you took them from
It's and left us poor. We cannot cdu-
cate them ; we are not able 20 do it,
The Senator from Maine tauntcd us
with Il statement as to the number Of
dollars per head appropriated annually
in Massachusetts to educate your chit
drcn and the small amount with us.
Contrast the amount of your proper; V
with ours, and 1 apprehend you will