Year: 1865

| That is q sufficient answer. Shall we at


this moment justify the deprivation OF


the negro of the right to vote, because


some one else is deprived of that privi-


lege? I hold that women, as we'll as


men, have the right to vote (applause)


and my heart and my voice go with the


movement to extend suffrage to woman


but that question rests upon another basis


than that on which our right rests. We


may be asked, | say why we want it. /


will tell you why we want it. We want


it because it Ia our right, first of ALL
(Applause.) No class of men can, with


out insulting their own nature, be con-


tent with any deprivation of their rights.
We want it, again, as means for educa-


ting our race. Men are so constituted


that they deprive their conviction of their


own possibilities largely from the esti-


mate formed of them by others. If moth


ing is expected of people, that people


will find it difficult to contradict that ex-


pectation. BY depriving us of suffrage,


you affirm our incapacity to form an in


tellgent judgment respecting public men
and public measures; you declare before
the world that we are unfit to exercise the
elective franchise, and by this means lead


us to undervalue ourselves, to put low
estimate upon ourselves, and to feel that
we have no possibilities like other men.


Again, want the elective franchise, for
one, as colored man, because ours is a
peculiar government, based upon pecu-
liar idea, and that idea is unive, sal suf-
frage. If | we're in monarchical gov
arnment, or an autocratic or aristocfatic
government, where the few bore rule and
the many were subject, there would be no
special stigma resting upon me, because
did not xercise the elective franchise.
1t would do me no great violence Ming
ling with the mass, should partake of
the strength of the mass; I should be
supported by the mass. and I should have
the same incentives to endeavor with the
mass Of my fellow men; it would be no
particular burden, 90 particular depriva-
ton but here, where universal suffrage
is the rule, where that is the fundamen.
tai idea of the Government, to rule us out
is to make us an exception, to brand us
with the stigma of interiority, and to in
vite to our heads the missiles of those
about us therefore, | want the franchise
for the black man.


There are, however, other reasons not
derived from any consideration merely of
our rights, but arising out of the condi-
ton of the Sonth, and OF the country
considers tions which have already been
referred to by Mr. Phillips consdera-
tions which must arrest the attention of
statesmen. | believe that when the tall
heads of this Rebellion shall have been
swept down, as they will be swept down,
when the Davises and Toombses and
Stephenses, and others who are leading in
this Rebellion shall have been blotted out,
there will by this rank underground of
treason, to which reference has been made,
growing up there, and interfering with,
and thwarting the quiet operation of the
Federal Government in those States. You
will see those traitors handing down, from
sire to son, the same malignant spirit
which they have manifested, and which
they are now exhibiting, with malicious
hearts, broad blades, and bloody hands in
the field, against our sons aud brothers.
That spirit will still remain; and whoever
sees the Federal Government extended
over those Southern States will see that
Government in strange land, and not
only in strange land, but in an enemy's
land A postmaster of the Unitod States
in the South will find himself surrounded
by hostile spirit; collectorin South
ern port will find himself surrounded by
a hostile spirit; United States marshal
or United States judge will be surround
ed there by hostile element. That en-
nifty will not die out in a year, will not
die out in an age. The Federal Govern
meut will be looked upon in those States
precisely as the Governments of Austria
and France are looked uponlin Italy at
the present moment. They will endeavor
to eireumvent, they will endavor to des-
troy, the peaceful operation of this Gov
ernment Now, where will you find the
strength to counterbalance this spirit, If
you do not find it in the negroes of the
South ? They are your friends and have
always been your friends. They were
your friends even when the Government
did not regard them as such; They CON-
pretended the genius of this war before
xY,.,, r.