Year: 1874

raise 1unu TO Drln9 case 10 Int


Supreme Court of the United States


and test the question whether ;


colored man could not take to him


self a white woman for a wife and


violate no law, and that the civil


rights law did override our State Law


our whole people, regardless of par


ty affiliations, were startled at the


announcement, as it was q depart


ure from all that had been said by


the advocates of the colored people


from the first step taken to advance


and educate them up to the assembl.


ing of that convention.


Sir, if that doctriGe had been pro-
claimed in 1865 the colored people


in my State would have stood isola-
ted and alone. The boldest white
man of the bold would not have
dared to advocate the doctrine of
intermarriage of the blacks and the
whites. and if that is the ultimatum
of the colored race their best friends
in Tennessee and several of the
other Southern States must bid them
adieu.


Mr.. Speaker, I do not believe
that said convention at Nashville
! spoke the sentiments of the colored
people Of my State. l cannot be-
lieve it. have too much confidence
in the good sense and judgement of
colored people. They cannot afford
to to take such fatal step. They
cannot in my opinion will not. place
themselves and friends in the posi-
tion Of favoring such a suicidal poll
cy.


The republican party gave to the
colored people all the rights they
enjoy. They were met at every step
by those who were opposed to ex-
tending these privileges to them.
The republican party believed it
was due to them that our great
Government believed, as they had
declared in the declaration of indie
/ pendence, that all men were born
free and equal, and they felt that it
was their duty to make good that
declaration and place all the citizens
upon one grand broad platform !;
and that was done by giving the
colored man his oath, by making
him juror, by permitting him to
sue and be sued. by giving him his
vote in all elections and q right to
be voted for. by providing him with
good schools for his children and
paying for them out of the common
treasury. All these rights and i'm
munities were cheerfully accorded
to him by the republican party


While they were offered by many
of our best citizens and thought not
to be for the best interests of both
races, they acquiesed in them and
had almost ceased opposition and
the two races were in harmony !;
and / am proud to say i'll my dis
| trict there is no persecution Of the
colored race and all parties are
anxious that no further agitation
would be brought about upon the
rights OF the respective races. ]
certainly had hoped that we had
crossed the Rubicon, that the ex-
element had subsided, and all was
harmonious; but in that | find | was
mistaken, that additional trouble at
least for the colored people was
about to be forced upon them by
those who claimed to be their friends
par excellence, but who l fear Will
prove their enemies.


Mr.. Speaker, 1 think that our re-
publican friends are mistaken in
urging the passage of this bill. /
accord to them honesty of intention
but mistaken judgment. But | do
believe that some Difference should
he shown Representative on this
floor who certainly have better
means of knowing the results Of
knowing this law than those who
live in localities where there arc but
very few colored people. Their
stand point is not as good as those
who come from such districts as the.
the one represent; and while I do
complain of the manner and Ian
guage used by several gentlemen
on the democratic side of the House
toward the colorcd people, l think
some of my side of the House have
a little too much gall toward those
who were in the rebellion. The
time has come when bad feeling
and exciting epithets should be
heard and exhibited no more. Let
us forget the past. 1t has no pleas
ant memories to either side. Lost
friends, ruined fortunes, aud blasted
hopes, emaciated forms, broken con-
stitutions, and divided families all
tell of fruitless effort to perpetu-
ate human slavery in an age when
the civilized world revoted at the
idea.


o, let us forget the past and di-
rect our thoughts to the present and
great future, and look at our great
national Commonwealth. Let us be-
hold our great nation, with thirty. |
seven States and ten Territories and /
two OF the Territories asking to be |
to the sisterhood Of States,
and a busy prosperous population of
forty millions, not only commanding
the respect of the world but feared |
by all the nations of the earth. who
not century ago were the vassals of
the mother-country. Let us love our
country, and teach our children to
love it for its greatness and its free
a country, where the
of the humble, where the
poorest of the poor, may aspire to be
its Chief Magistrate or become its
a Government able to
preserve its republican existence
against foreign invasion or domestic
notorious for its mag
unanimous dealings with its domestic
enemies. and not unmindful Of its
four millions of colored people who
we're but a few years since in bond
age o, then, let US be united upon