Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-04-09

among the scholars, not on the basis of illit-
eracy, but of population of school age. Such
division would give about three dollars to
the white iliterates in proportion to one dol
lar to the black
To correct this defect and render the pro-
posed measure just and equal in its conteu,-
plated application, Senator Allison proposed
the following amendment:
"And in each State in which there shall be
separate schools for white and colored chill
dren the money paid in such State shall be
apportioned and paid out Tor the support of
such white and colored schools 10 the proper
ton that the illiteracy of the Whit and coll
ored per.ons aforesaid bears to each other, -
shown by CENSUS.
This amendment is not only equal and just
but must be regarded az essential to the OBJ
ject intended by the original bill; and its
rejection is complete justification of the
negative votes Of both the Maine senators on
the entire bill.
Senator Hale made an eloquent and power
erful speech in favor Of the amendment from
which We make the following extract:
Nov what are You going to do with this
amendment, Mr.. President? What is TO be
its fate? 1t can be beaten. The Senator
from New York, and the Senator from Mesa
chusetts and other Senators on this side.
with solid vote upon the other side, may de-
feat this amendment. That is notan infre-
quent thing The uneducated. the illiterate,
The poor the d-spised, the dow n-trodden, and
not yet erect colored man will suffer, but that
i. ~ new thing; such combination as thar
has many time before interfered with his
progress and hi. rights. Thirty-six years ago
il the Senate of the United States the rights
Of the colured man were violated and out
ragged bv a combination of the entire vote Of
one section Of the country aud a few recreant
Senators upon Vac other side, and the law was
enacted by such a combination that mad
slavery the rule and freedom the exception
for the colured man. Seized in State IN the
North. fleeing from bondage, nav, with his
feet almost pres sed upon the Canadian Dor
der, with the cup of liberty at his lips, he was
demanded ruthiessly by the law 50 passed by
such a combination to chains and slavery;
and he NAV be here now kept out of what
was his due for years by the defeat Of this
amendment
Since then the colored man has had an
evenjfu career. His life has been BEST With
vcissi,udes and struggles, and prosecutions
and death When the war broke out he en-
tered the Union army. He laid down his
body at Fort Wagner and Port Hudson and
on scores Of other battletelds His sym
pathies were always with the Union and with
the flag. On dark nights he pIloted the fugi-
tiyes that were fleeing from Salisbury and
Libby and Andersonvlle to the North and
when the war was over he emerged a grim
and pathetic picture that at once took posses
sion of the mind and imsg ination of every
American politician and Statesman.
The question was what should be done
with him; what should be his status and con-
dition? And no bill like the one that is now
before the Senate was suited to his condition
any more than this bill Is to-day suited to his
darkened state. And so the great amendments
to the constitution were adopted, establish
ing forever his liberty clothing him with civil
rights. and putting into his hand the ballot
Then there fell upon him Il tempest so fear
full that if it did not annihuate his race It might
well have broken its spirit. The ku-klux
riders harried him from Virginia to Texas.
The Mississippi plan drove him away from
the polls or slaughtered him there. The
midnight riders o. Louisiana hung hun to the
ratrers Of bis burning cabin. The first citl
zens of kemper county shot him down on elec
ton day and murdered his best friend is the
presence of that trends wife and children.
New Orleans. Copiah, and Cousha'ta, and a
hundred other CHASTITY places tell IA story at
which the world might weep and the Stna-
tor from Massachusetts has never been back
ward in presenting these wrongs OF the col
ored man to thu Senate of the United Stats
or to the House of Representatives, or to the
country at large; and it is only here now to
nv surprise that he is found wanting.
All thi, time the culored mao has kept on
patiently doirg his silent, unobserved, and
sometimes unapprecated work. lie has
piled the pillow and the hoe; he has acquired
land. But above all, he has found that the one
thing he needs that shall make liberty and
freedom available for him, to say nothing of
making him useful part of the budy-politic,
is the education that is given to white
children in the North aud in the South, which
he has not got. and which the amendment of
the Senator from Iowa seeks, so that he shall
have il not only in the sections where black
schools are to-day established, but in the far
reaching. wide region where they are not to
be found.
The amendment NAV be beaten; | do not
know but that it Is; but if il is beaten it
ought To ring the death-knell of the bill that
is presented by the Senator from New Hamp
snlre 10 me nv way, a1leT that, Is plalH rs
path of shining light | will not hesitate
one moment, Mr.. President and Senators if
this amendment of the Senator from Iowa is
defeated, in voting against the bill.
| sm ready to stand or fall with that
amendment am ready to take it before
any Northern people, nay, before any South
ern people. will take it to the great com
monwealth of Massachusetts that has been so
illustrously represented here, and never
more so than today, right in the Senators
home among his neighbors and with the in
tellgent men and women and children that
live upon New England hllsides and are
found in her valleys and come out aud make
up her audiences in public meetings. will
stand or fall with that amendment, as | will
here, Mr. President.
The Democratic State COMMITTEES