The Aberdeen examiner. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1866-current, 1884-04-10
THE EDUCATIONAL BILE.
REMARKS OF HON. F. JONAS. OF LouI,
sIANA, in SUPPORT OF THE BILL.
IT s SENATE. March oath

e. s. SENATE, March Goth.
Mr.. JONAS. Mr.. President, l had
intended to content myself with casting
a silent vote in favor of this measure.
1t is one which my people approve and
favor, one which favor, and have from
it's inception. / think great credit is
due to the very able charm u of the
committee which has presented this
measure, and to the Senators associated
with him for their efforts in bringing it
before the Senate and the country, for
the diligence which they have displayed
in collecting facts and statistics to pre-
sent to the Senate and the country, and
for their single-minded efforts in behalf
OF cause which Is not only dear to the
people of my State, but which has be-
come measure of necessity to the peo-
pie of one half Of the States of this
| Union if not in some manner to them all.
[ accept this bill in behalf of the PEG.
pie whom | in part represent ms a great
| benefaciion, MS great assistance to a
| people oyerburdened by charge laid
upon them which they Vre unable to
meet. but which they have every diapo
sition to carry out to the very best OF
their ability. The State of Louisiana
| figures far down in the roll of States
charged with having large illitertts
population. do not intend to go into
details that have been discussed over
and over again to show why this greal
illiterucy exists, certainly not by our
fault, and certainly any Que who has
\ studied the history of the Southern
States since the war, who is familiar
with the struggle which those people
have made to regain their former pros
perity, who considers the burden OF debt
! and taxation under which they have
been staggering, who considers the lm-
meuse amount of property which was
swept away and destroyed i'll the civil
revolution in which they were engaged,
must recognize the inability Of that peo =,
pie to fulfill the duty which they owe,
and l admit it, to give the children llv-
| ing within their States the benefit OF
education and to qualify them for the
enjoyment of the privileges and the per"
Torrance Of the duties OF citizens,
Therefore | intended to vote for the
bill without saying a word in its favor,
believing that its manifold merits had
| been fully set forth by the Senator who
| had it in charge. But | can not remain
in my seat and be silent as to charges
which have been made against the PEG
pie of my State as well as the other
States of the South, by Senators who
have spoken in opposition to the bill, on
the other side of the Chamber, yester
day and to-day.
The distinguished Senator from Ohio
Mr.. SHERMAN last evening approached
! the consideration of the bill with that
cool deiberation which always cborac-
terizas him He expressed the most
| gen rous sentiments towards the people
OF the South; he had nothing but pity
aud sympathy for them in their misfor
tunes; he advocated the general object
and character of the bill, vindicaled its
constitutionality, assumed the duty
which he said rested upon the people Of
the country 10 educate those ignorant
people, the emauupated slaves and their
children. and then proceeded to give
reasons why he could not vote for the
bill, reasons in search of which be went
back into the days Immediately after the
war, and raked up the history OF the
period of reconstruction, the killing of
| A Abraham Lincoln, the turpitudes and
tergiversations of Andrew johnson, the
passage OF the constitutional amend
ments, the necessity which rested upon
the political party then in power to give
the ballot to the emancipated slaves,
winding up by the intimation that il was
unsafe at the present time to put the
control of the expenditure of this money
in the hands OF the people of the South,
intimaiing that at this day, nearl y TWEEN
ty years ufter the events of which he
was speaking, after the results of the
war had been fully accepted, after the
COnsti utional amendments had been re-
cognized and accepted as fully at the
South as at the North, giving as his rea-
sons for opposing the bill that the South
could not be trusted to administer this
fund unless some amendments are made
to the bill by which Federal machinery
can be carried into the States to control
its administration and its distribution.
To-day the Senator from the far off
State OF Oregon Mr.. DoLPH also III Il
mild and brotherly manner has express
ed his sympathy with the South, his
friendship Tor the South. his affection
for its people, his admiration for the
stand which they took and maintained
for nearly fouryears ina mistaken cause,
hls admiration for the manner in which
they accepted the results of the ruin
and downfall of that cause his admira-
ton for manner in which they accepted
the measure of reconstruction, and yet,
with all this, he has taken upon himself
to make insinuations and charges against
those States and their people of the most
injurious and calumniOus character.
without specifying one single charge
or giving one single source of informa
ton, he has assumed to say that we set
aside and trod upon the constitutional
amendments; he has assumed to say that
we deprive one class of the people of
their constitutional and civil rights; he
has assumed to express his belief that
we will not faithfully administer this
fund If contided to us for the purpose of
educating the colored people. He has
said, with all his GENEROUS sympathy
for MS, that he has manifold reasons for
believing and knowing all these things.
and yet he has not made one specific
charge, nor given one single aud solitary
fact. HIS speech couehed in honeyed
words was full of gall aud bitterness.
He processes that his feelings are those
of beneticence toward the people of the
South, aud yet he stabs them in their
tenderest sensibilities without giving any
reasons, or any facts, but intimating
that he has some secret source OF in
formation which convinces him that
those people who have borne so much,
submitted TO SO mnch, and vindicated
their claim to patience and to manhood
through so many years. can not be trust
ed with the administration of this beue
faction which this bin proposes to give
t. them, not for themselves but for the
purpose of educating the ignorant, the
uncultivated wards of the nation, whom
you have made their citizens and suffra-
gans.
Mr.. President, deny these charges,
baseless as they are, as calumnies, as
| slanderous imputations upon the people
whom | in part represent. | say that to
the best Of our ability IN the State of
Louisiana. and believe throughout the
South, we have striven to do equal
| justice to the colored man with the
/ "a Il itp' that in tho rnattpp of pInaofinn