The Portland daily press., 1890-01-17
The Scheme to Send the Negroes to
the Dark Continent.
Advocated by Mr.. Butler and Rough
iy Handled BY Mr.. Hoar.
Mr.. Blair Urges His Famous Bill as
the True Solution.


the resolution was passed. Several other
bills were reported from committees and
placed on the calendar.
The Senate then took up the bill intro
duced by Mr.. Butler to provide for the emf
grafton of persons Of color from :he South
ern States. Mr.. Butler then proceeded to
address the Senate. Cupidity, he said,
brought the African here. Cupidity in
veigled the Chinaman here, and cupidity had
driven him out. The Indian had been here
and would not be reduced to slavery. so the
Indian was bounded and corralled, but he
was still here and menace What was to
pc done with the Indian? Make citizen of
him? Give HIM the ballot with full civil and
political rights? Why not? The Indian
was here before the white man, the African
or the Mongolian. He spoke of granting the
suffrage to the colored man as a craze,
neither wise nor judicious. But the act was
was to be undone. He would not discuss the
responsibility for it, but would admit for
sake of argument. that both sections and
both political parties were responsible. Some
persons who held hi .h rank in the intellect
ual world, held that in the history of the At
rican lace il this country was to be seen cen the
hand of God for the accomplishment of a
great purpose in another hemisphere. Events
appeared to be shaping themselves in a man
ner to justify such a conclusion. The race
question. raised by the changed attitude of
the two races toward each other, was eyi.
dence that the issue was not confined to any
locality, section or party. What was to be-
come of the 100000 Indians iD this country
and the 100000 Cinnamon was a difficult
problem, but the most profound inquiry ap-
piled 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 cit zens. They had the ballot and all
the civil and political rights the white men
had, which were denied to other colored
races. Would the colored people in the
selves on an equal footing with the white
men SO as not to jeopardize the well.being of
American institutions? The opinion appear
ed to be growing that they would not.
Tne interest of both races required that
the problem should be carefully weighed and
fairly dealt with. Mr.. Butler saw in the alb
sence of the colored people from all high po-
sltions OF this country proof of unrelenting,
and incurable race prejudice. If
anybody had predicted before the war that
the Southern States would within few
years be represented in both houses of Con-
gress. by men then slaves, he would have
been laughed at and derided as negrophil-
lst. Ii, after there We're many negroes in
Congress, it had been predicted that in ten
years not one negro would be sitting in
either house, it would have had few believ-
ers. Ii any one predicted today that within
half century not full blooded, genuine
negro would be found in the United States,
1t would not be believed. Yet there were
men who expected that very thing. The bill,
he said, contemplated gradual, orderly and
voluntary movement of colored people out
of the Southern States, and provided gov
aid to enable them to do so. Ii he
were called upon for authority whereby Con-
gress could properly make such an appropri-
alton, he should point to the appropriations
mad made to aid s the Indians in moving out OF the
to appropriations to exclude Cinnamon. 1t
to him proper exercise of the
power of Congress to appro-
pirate money for the national welfare. The
of the negro strengthened his
claim over that of the Indian for such gov
ernment assistance The negro would not
move out of the Southern States except on
his own motion. Nothing in the bill would
coerce or compel him to move.
Mr.. Butler quoted at some length from the
book of Z. W. Blyden, a colored clergyman
who had lived many years in Africa, to show
that the ultimate regeneration of Africa
rested with the negroes Of the United States.
He also quoted in parallel sense from let
tiers OF other colored clergymen in this coun-
try, and from speeches by Daniel Webster,
Edward Everett, Stephen A. Douglass and
Abraham Lincoln.
Mr.. Hoar said that it seemed to him that
the proposition of Mr.. Butler was the most
astonishing ever heard in the legislative his
tory of the Senate, or in the legislative his
tory Of any free, civilized and prosperous
people. The United States, at this moment,
were growing in wealth, strength and pros
perity. Still the demand for labor kept more
than abreast with the general expansion of
the country. From all clmes under the sun,
laborers were thronging, and yet in the Sen
ate of the United States, a proposition was
fOrap n nation
by its treasury, eight millions of laborers.
born on American soil, every one of them
entitled to every right, be deported to
what the. Senator justly styled the
and and which, was less @ known o to the sfs; readers
of history today than it was when the father
of history attempted description OF it 800
years before the birth of Christ. Mr.. Hoar
paid high compliment to eX Senator Bruce
Of Mississippi and eight or ten colored men,
who had sat in the House of Representatives
several years. He declared there could have
been no better example of legislative charac-
ter, for purity of conduct, for soundness of
judgment and for ability in debate there
were these representatives of that race. 1t
was not that the colored race could not be
made fit for freedom that the proposition
was made, but simply on the ground that the
nature OF things or the nature of man was
such that men of different races, especially
OF different complexion, could not live to-
gether in harmony, peace, freedom and
that was true. the Declaration OF ILdepen-
derce was lie, and the constitution of the
United States and the constitution of every
American State rested on r0ttenness; the
Christian religion was solemn mOckery and
solemn falsehood. The question had never
been tried and there was no right to ask a
SINCE cOlored man to turn his back upon his
country. or upon any community in 1t until
he had been given his opportunity of citizen
ship under the same conditions as are alb
solutely necessary to white men.
He could not see that the representatives
OF the South had any policy but a policy of
dispair.. He could not believe that any con-
siderable number of colored people could be
induced to deport themselves or that the
American people could ever be got to apply
to them any restraint. What he asked, was
this,country,t to their dividing between the two
political parties as the German and Swede
did, excerpt that the white race would not
permit that thing to be done?
Mr.. Blair spoke against the bill, and
wound up with an argument that the solu
tion OF the difficulty lay in the enactment of
his bill to promote education. The bill went
over without action.
The message from the President in refer
epce to the claims of the government of
Sweden and Norway in regard to tonnage
dues was presented, read and referred to the
Mr.. Teller presented the credentials of
Wilbur +. Sanders and Thomas @. Power as
Senators elect from Montana, and they were
referred to the committee on privileges and
elections. The Senate proceeded to the con-
sideratiOn of executive business, ana at 1.15
adjourned until Monday.
The Pension List.
WASHINGTON, January l6. Pensions
have been granted to the following Maine
people:
Isaiah j. James, Eureka.
Horace G. Wilson, Bangor.
Patrick Doyle, National Military Home.
Asa Il. Smith. North Winterport.
James G. Bishop, MonSon.
Silas McKeen, Lynchville.
George E. Taylor, Athens.
Rufus a. Carter, MOntviIle.
Joseph, Southland, Ripley, minors OF William H.
Hayes, st. Albans.
The Worlds Fair.
WASHINGTON, January 16.-In the House
MIR. Mckinley of OHIO, from the committee
pointment of a committee on the world
fair, to consist of 13 members, which COM
nittee shall within three days report plan
by which the House can determine the site
OF the proposed fair, and subsequently report
n bill providing for the fair. Mr.. Cannon OF
illinois. as n minority Of the committee, re-
ported a substitute resolution, recitiDg that
the House had referred to the committee on
foreign affairs bills, petitions and memorials
touching the projected worlds fair in 1892,
giving full jurisdiction to that committee OF
the whole subject matter, and asking the
committee to report resolution providing 9