The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1881-04-29
UNITED STATES SENATE.
CHOW COME IT SO:'
s. We are Poor and You are Kich.''


Brown in reply to Senator Frye.]
1t the safety Of society and property
and all that is dear to the State Of
Massachusetts, requires that each voter
shall be able to read his ballot before he
puts it in the box, what rule ought to
apply to Georgia for the like safety OF
society and protection Of all that is dear
to II people? Suppose we plead the
same excuse or adopt the same rule and
drive from our polls by 81 statute or a
constitutional provision every body
who cannot read the Constitution in
the English language and write his
name, how many republican colOred
men would vote then? A much small
Ter number, L apprchend, than vote
now.
But we have not acted upon your
rule. You determined under the re-
construction acts that they should vote
for the time. When we adopted the
State constitution we thought it unfair
to them, AS they had been faithful to
us, as stated by the Senator from
Maine, in our trying emergency, to
drive them from the polls by an cduca-
tional qualification, and we did not do
it. But the idea is that we ought to
educate them; that was the charge
thrown at us by the Senator from
Maine when he taunted us with our
poverty. Why, the honorable Senator
said the operatives in Massachusetts
had money enough in the sa wings ba nlis
to buy the State OF Florida several
times over, and he referred to the fact
that she has about thirty million dol
lars worth of property. Yes, il is SO.
We are poor and you arc rich. How
came it sOc
Massachusetts and New England when
the slave trade was very profitable.
Georgia never engaged in it; slavery
was prohibited in her original charter,
and she manfnlly resisted for a time
And as I noticed the other day in a
book in the Library that l think good
authority, in the convention that franz
ed the Constitution of the United
States, Georgia and South Carolina
made it condition precedent to the
Union that the importation of slaves
within reasonable time should be pro-
hibited. New England do not think
made that a condition precedent. Those
who made the trade profitable insisted
on longer time to import. When
you imported the slaves their labor
was rot found to be very rcmunera-
tive on the barren and bleak hills and
shores of Massachusetts and New Eng
land. There was a more congenjal
cline there was place where the cot
ton grew and the tobacco grew, and
various productions that vou could not
raise in New England, and your
ancestry brought them down and sold
them to us and our ancestors bought
them from you and gave their money
for them, and you took that money
and presume you put it into brick
and mortar and into fisheries, and
factories, and shipping; and you went
TO work building upon it. 1t was
substantial wealth to you, and YOU
knew how to take care of the dollar
But there is another reason why you
are rich and we are poor. During the
time we held slave property guaran-
teed to US by the Constitutions, and
since that time, the farmers and plan
ters, the mechanics and the laboring
classes of this country generally have
been taxed under the tariff laws of the
United States to build up and MAIN
tain New England factories and New
England interests. With the money
which you have received from that
source and from the fisheries at the ex-
Pense or under the protection of the
government, and from the i!nporta-
tlon OF slaves and from other sources
you nave grown rich and powerful,
while we by the loss of slaves purchas.
ed from you have grown poor. Hence
You are able to appropriate large sums
Ior educational purposes while we are