Year: 1862

..-. f. SPEECH OF ,~. ~. .-..,
HON. WIN. A. RICHARDSON
! OF ILLINOIS ~


Delivered in the Houss Of Nay 49, 81
The House being In Committee Of the Whole tn
State Of the Union. Nh. RICHARDSON said


Mr.. CHAIRNAE: desire this morning Il
submit few remarks for the considera
tion of the House and the country. 1t i
not my purpose to discuss questions per
taining to the army already in the field
which, if judicially ofhcered and managed
is able to crush out rebellion. l shall di
rect my tattention, therefore, to the con
sideration Of some of the many new ques
tions which are continually arising during
the progress of this terrible civil war;
Mr.. Chairman, there is a monifest anxi
ETY., an overweening desire, persisten,
purpose upon the part of prominent mem
bers of the dominant party in this govern
ment, to place upon terms Of equality anG
make participants with us in the rights e
American citizenship an inferior race
The negro race, which is incapable Of
either comprehending or maintaining any
form Of government-by whom liberty is
interpreted as Iicentiousness-is sought to
be exhalted, even at the cost Of the degra.
dtaion of our own flesh and blood


We all remember with what intense
satisfaction a recent order of the Secre
tary of State, Mr.. Seward, one of the
chief clerks of the President, was receive d
in certain quarters, because 1t declared
that no fugitive slave should be retained
L. Al 4
"by special order OF competent civil
authority .-....-


That may do no injustice to the head
of the State Department and his unwar.
ranted assumption of power, quote the
official paper itself:


DgrARfNESr OF STATE,
WAsnISGrox. January as 1882.


SIR: The President Of the United States being
satisfied that the following instructions con:ravene
no law in force in this District and that they can
be executed without waiting for legislation by
Congress, am directed By him to convey them to
you: f


As marshal Of the District of Columbia you will
not receive into custody any persons claimed TO be
held to service or labor within the District else
where, and not charged with any crime or misde-
meanor, unless upon arrest or commitment pur-
suant TO law, as fugitives from s,ich service or
labor; and you will not retain anv such fugItives
in custody beyond u period Of thirty days from
tueir arrest ana commitment, unless by special
order of competent civil authority.


You will forthwith cause publication TO be made
Of this order, and at the expiration of ten days
thcrefrom you will apply the same to all persons
So claimed to be held TO s<Ivice labor, aud now
III your custody.


This order has relation 10 ary arrests made
By military authority.


am your obedient servant


WILLIAM ii. SEWARD.


While Mr.. Seward was issuing this
order for q general jail delivery of the
negroes, he was also sending, under a
usurpation of power, and IN violation OF
the laws and the Constitution. hundreds
Of white men and women TO fill the cells
of the prisons In this District and through
out the loyal States Against many of
these white men and women thus incar-
cerated by this despotic Secretary of State.
no charge has ever been made they are
imprisoned without the form or authority
OF law, and thus the personal liberty of
the Caucasion Is ruth lessly violated while
the African is most tenderly and carefully
guarded, even to the notification of State
enaclments and the national statutes
Let rumor become current that . negro
has been deprived of personal liberty
either in this District or anywhere eise-
and there are dozens OF republican men,





attention the attention of the House while
they may offer resolutions inqurng by
what law, by whom, when, and where,
these objects of their undivided affections
may have been arrested. But never yet
has any of these phianthropic gentlemen
made inquiry for the law or the authority
under which white American citizens
have been kidnapped by the State Depart
ment draggel from their homes, andyleft
to pine and die, perchance, in some Of the
many bastiles which the Administration
has established.


1t Is well known, sir, that if any white
citizen, perhaps father or brother, de
sires to visit a relative or acquaintance in
the military service of this Government,
that he is obliged to secure q pass from
some competent authority; and to obtain
this, he is required upon his honor to de-
clare his loyalty and fidelity to the Go
verLment But the negro goes and comes
within the lines Of the army without
pass, whether his destination be towards
or from the enemy the color of the black
man IS his passport, and is received as
equivalent to the pledge of honor and
OF loyalty upon the part of a white person.


In this District you have abolished
slavery. You have abolished il by COM
pensation, by adding 81 100000 to the
national debt, and a tax Of $4,000 to be
paid annually, as interest upon this sum,
by taxes imposed upon the laboring
white people OF these States Not salts
fed with doing this much for your especial
favorite, you extend the freedom of this
city and the hospitality of the Government
to all the runaway negroes IN the country
who choose to visit the District of Colum-
bia. You issue ratiOns to them day after
day, and week after week, rations which
must be paid for through the sweat and
toll of taxridden white men. Yon are
thus supporting in Incidence hundreds
of black men. How many and at what
cost am unable to state, because when
resolution; asking for this information,
was introduced by the honorable gentle
man from Ohio Mr.. Cox it was imme
diately tabled oy the Republican majority
on the other side of this House. Those
gentlemen dare not let this information
20 to the country; they shrink from the
exposure which truthful reply to such
inquiry would make. The resolution of
Mr.. Cox also asked for q number of ne
groes employed as teamsters in the army,
and at what wages; but this was equally
Objectionable, for it would have illustrated
the fact that negroes by the hundred are
receiving better pay as drivers than our
own white sons and brothers are for peril
ing the ir lives as soldiers in the defence of
the Union and the Constitution.


Having been thus deprived of obtai ming
official information upon these questions,
am obliged 10 gather my statistics from
such sources as can. l shall max e no
statement that have not received from
respectable ana responsible parties, and
none which do not conceive to be rather
than over the true estimate.


The Government is to-day sssuing g ra-
tions to about two thousand negroes In
this District alone, that cost over twenty