Los Angeles daily herald., 1890-01-17
THE SENATE.
butler's Negro Emigration Sshcme
Discussed.

iequlo .Ho CuperlnConQonG OF census
ascertain what percentage of people owi
thelrisown farms, the number of farm
under mortgage and the amount thereof
morrill,, from the Finance Committee
reported the concurrent resolution re
questing the Secretary of the Treasur
not to make a new lease of the island
OF st. Paul and st. George, in Alaska, TO
the purpose OF taking fur seals thereon
and to postpone all action in relation
thereto until after the goth of February
1890. Passed.
among the bills reported from com
mlttees and placed on the calendar wer,
the following: Establishing custom
collection district to consist of the State
OF North and South Dakota; for the re
moval OF Indian prisoners in the Eas
lGeronimo's band) to Fort Sill, Indiar
Territory.
The Senate then took up the bill in
troduced by Butler TO provide for the
emigration OF persons of color from the
Southern States, and Butler proceeded to
address the Senate.
This. he said, was too grave subject
to be distorted by party considerations,
or confined within the narrow bounda-
ries and limits of party lines. Some per-
sons who held high rank in the intel
lectual world, held that in the history of
the African race in this country was to
be seen the hand of God for the accom-
plishment of great purpose in the
other hemisphere. Events appeared to
be shaping themselves in a manner to
justify such a conclusion. The race
question raised by the changed attitude
of the two races toward each other, was
burning evidence that the issue was not
confined to any locality, section or party.
What WAS to become of the 5000
Indians Of this country, and of the 1OO,.
QUO Cinnamon, was difficult problem,
but the most profound inquiry applied
directly to the pending bill, and that WAS
what was to be the fate of the six or
eight million negroes in this country.
They were citizens they had the ballot;
they had all the civil and political rights
which the white men had, and which
we're denied to other colored races.
Butler referred to the absence of
,olored people from all the high positions
n this country, and saw in that fact proof
IT unreenting, unforgiviDg, incurable
ace prejudice. If anybody, he said, had
Predicted before the war that the South
'rn States would within few years be
represented in both Houses of Congress
W men who were then slaves, he would
lave been laughed at. II anyone pre-.
iicted today that within half a century
lot full-blooded genuine negro would
70 found in the United States, he would not
% believed, and yet there vera men who
that very thing. The bill, he
said. plated gradual, orderly,
voluntary movement of the colored peo-
pie out of the Southern States, and pro-
1ided for the Government to enable them
20 do so. While ths negroes remained
n large masses and exceeded in num-
oers their white neighbors, not only did
,he negroes not advance in the scale OF
but actually retrograded:
Such, at least, had been his
experience. On the other hand
observation and experience had con.
vinced him that, where the white race
was largely in the majority, the white
nan was better off and the negro was
better off, so that no friend of the
negroes would oppose the bill because it
would be hurtful to the negro. He be
ieved if the Government would do it's
iuty by the negro (instead of coach
ng him and confusing him with civil
lights and empty statutes); if
t would render him substantial
assistance in bis struggle for regenera.
ion and real freedom, he would illumine
he dark continent of his fathers with
he light of Christianity and law. AS to
he effect on the Southern States, he
laid if the South could be thus relieved
ii part, at least, of its superabundant
cheap labor, there would be such an i'm
migration of white, intelligent, progress
We citizens that the prosperity of the
South during the laet decade would pale
into insignificance as compared with It's
future progress.
Mr.. Hoar replied to Butler that il
seemed to him this proposition was the
most astonishing that had ever been
heard in the legislative history of the
Senate, or in the legislative history of any
free, civilized and prosperous people.
From all climes under the sun laborers
were thronging all one way in their
eager desire to share in our harvest
of national prosperity and national
glory, and yet in the Senate of the
United States the proposition was made
tudb NY tuo lOICo VI eIlO ANdViOu, oiuCu ny
it's treasury, 5000, 900 of laborers, born
on American soil, every one of them en-
titled to every right, we're to be de.
ported to what the Senator had
Justly styled the dark region OF
the dark continent, and which in
spite of the recent explorations of their
illustrious fellow citizen, was less known
to the readers of history today than it
was when the Father of History at
tempted description of it 800 years BE-
fore the birth of Christ.
Blair spoke against the bill. He
thought that if, instead of exporting
8 100000 colored people, there were
10 900 white people exported to Africa
and kept there, the whole difficulty
would be settled. The difficulties OF the
race problem existed in the excited
and ineradicable prejudlces
of few white men. not between
the races themselves. AS to the idea OF
the Senator from Alabama (Morgan)
that the choice was between numbering
the negroes or marrying them-betweeu
killing them or assimilating them-he
thought that a course of lectures on the
sixth and seventh commandments would
settle the whole thing, and no more
Would be heard of doctrine that was al
absurdity and an insult to our common
humanity.
The bill went over without action.
Teller presented the credentials o
Sanders and Power as Senators-elecl
from the State of Montana. They were
referred to the Committee on Privileges