Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-03-07

attempt should be made to stir up partisan
prejudice that the gentleman from Virgins
should so far forget himself as to become
angry. If the election of 1854 had put an
end to the war issue. why could not the elec-
ton case be considered by the House with
out any rebel bloody shirt being anfurled
and shaken before the country: The gen.
tleman had said that all the colored people
who used to vote the republican ticket, now
voted the democrat. He supposed that vss
the reason why the democratic majority in
Virginia had fallen from fifty thousand to
nothing and the democrats had only one or
two members in the House from Virgidia,
while the republicans had six or seven.
applause on tha republican side.) He
would like to know what the democratic party
had ever done for the colored people. The
gentleman said to the colored men in the
galleries, the democratic party and demo-
cratic generals had struck the shackles from
the Niger. If the democratic party had
contributed anything to the emancipation of
the coiored people it was on the principle of
a kicking gun, killing things behind it instead
of what it shot at. Laughter) The demo-
crat party had plunged the country into a
war of four years TO keep the manacles on
the colored men and TO have the privilege of
selling their wives and children. The gen.
tleman spoke of the man at the other end of
the avenue as the child of destiny So was
Pharaoh when he walked into the Red Sea but
he and his army were drowned all the same.
In November next the democratic party
would encounter the Red Sea- be overthrown
and wiped from the face of the earth. ZAP
plause on the republican side In the South
there was no reason why the colored man
should be afraid to vote the democratic ticket
except that the ghosts of his murdered friends
and comrades might rise up and haunt him
for having deserted the party which freed
him.
Mr.. Boutelle said that the gentleman from
Virginia, (O'Ferrall) had gone out of his
course in his remarks to cast a reflection
upon the sincerity and earnestness of Abra-
ham Lincoln in the performance of the most
important act of his life. When he suggested
that the gentleman was not so situated as TO
be well informed on that point, the gentle
man had become very much excited and talk
ed about bravery and cowardice- He (Bou-
tell was not here to display either bravery
or cowardice. In his experience he had
never heard the gentleman from Virginia
speak on any subject without speaking with
particular pride of the fact that he serve in
the war and fought against his country.
He (Boutelle) )never indulged in boasting of
that character. He was cordially willing to
accord to the gentleman the need of bravery
in one aspect 1t requires a very peculiar
kind of bravery in any man to stand mp be-
fore the people and attempt to pluck from the
brow of the .martyred Lincoln
so much as single withered laurel
leaf placed there by the common consent of
the civilized world, for performing the
act which would live as long as history
should survive, In this respect he conceded
to the gentleman the full need of that sort of
bravery which has been illustrated by a
line of poetry which said, "Thingu-
mees rush in where what-you-
may call-'ems fear TO tread" daughter
He (Boutelle) frequently heard Hannibal
Hamlin say that Lincoln cOnfided to him his
purpose to issue the proclamation long be-
fore he made it known to his Cabinet. That
proclamation had beed signed unhesitatingly
after a careful consideration. He (Boutelle)
was willing to leave the issue raised by the
gentleman from Virginia, as Lincoln left the
issue of the proclamation "tO the considerate
judgment of mankind, the gracious favor of
God"
After further debate by Mr.. Butterworth
of Ohio, in favor of the minority report and
Mr.. Moore of Texas, Mr.. Jones of Ala, Mr..
Wheeler of Alabama, in favor of the claims
of the sitting member, the discussion closed
by Mr.. Crisp of Georgia, who touched upon
the question of the negro vote and declared
in the South that the vote was being cast for
the nominee of the democratic party. The
minority resolution declaring McDuffee en-
titled to mis- seat was rejected by vote of
yeas, l22 and nays IA. The majority reso-
luton declaring the sitting member entitled
to his seat was adopted without division.
Then House then adjourned.