Year: 1860

In the course Of speech in the Houss


Of Representatives, Gen. Ashley of Ohio,


himself native Of Virginia, rsked down


the advocates of Negro Equality after
this fashion


And now. sir, what are the practical


effects Of slavery, ss exhibited in the


working cut of this much talked Of and


universally denounced negro equality and


anna gamation Of the races Has not
! slavery corrupted the blood, to say moth


ing of the morals Of millions in the South?
( If it has not, whence spring the octo-


rooms. the quadroons, and the myriads


who are tinged with the blood of the
dominant race, in every Southern State 7


Sir, it is in the land of slavery you must


look for amalgamation, aud that terrible,


degrading negro equality, which 10 insep-
cradle from such amalgamation. But


for negro equality all over the South


that must be nameless here, there would


be no blue eyed, light-haircd octoroous,


the children and defendants of African
slaves, in every Southern city, and in ev
cry neighborhood, appealing TO the lib
eral, as we see them almost daily here in
this Capital, asking for aid to purchase
their right to that which God gave, not
only to them, but to all the human race,
the right to themselves. Sir, than Nor
mon polygamy, about which even South
ern Representatives profcsseu to be 30
shocked, this crime Of Southern Amalga.
nation is worse; for, while the Mormon
system is voluntary, and must have the
sanction of public Church ordinance
and the full and unqualified assent Of tho
first wife, and the children be entitled to
all the ghts protection and property
which is secured to the children Of tho
first marriage, this Southern system is
involuntary, forced, and revolving concu-
binage, from which there is no escape, il
the victim desires it, there being no law
to punish the aggrcssor. And, sir, the
offspring Of this criminal negro equality
are slaves. 1t there was law 10 punish
such crimes, the testimony Of slaves could
not with safety Go admitted for if such
were the case, and the penalty attached
should be the liberation Of all childreD,ss
it ought to be, whose fathers were white
men, then Wilmot provisos and further
opposition to slavery would be a useless
occupation with the people of the North.
The institution would fall by the fascina-
ting graces and seductive power Of these
black dulcneas, before whose irresistible
charms the aristocracy and plebiuus Of
the South alike appear to bow


"Sir, it is only in the land Of slavery
where this crime is tolerated. There it
is unrestraincd There alone it is cher.
ished and if slavery continues, it must
become universal, bIishting and corrod-
ing the life blood of the nation by eradi.
eating from the heart of man all love for
his own offspring, and filling the land
with slaves who are children of the dom.
inant race. How frightful has been the
progress and increase of this desolating
and destroying evil Sir, do you sup
pose that there is one Southern State
nay, one Congressional District-in oil
the slave States Of this Union, in which
shareholders do no. own and sell their
own children where they do not see
master, aud see them driven in coff1e
gangs to the Southern market-their
sons to the shambIes and their daughters
to the hells of Southern cities? But it
may, and probably will, be claimed that
these octoroons and quadroons are not
the children of the masters; but that they
are children of the poor whites. l care
not, Mr.. Chairman, whose they may be;
the fact Of their existence is evidence
of the crime; and the further fact that
the law MAKERS who are always slavchold-
ers in all the Southern States, do not
punish the crime by law, as they would
if they desired to restrain it, is certainly
a circumstance not very favorable to their
own innocence


Isn't that right to the point?