Year: 1867

Victed traitor rather than the slimy,
miserable tool of traitors, as is the man
Thurman. But those negroes are too
ignorant to vote. Well, great many
that now vote are more ignorant than /
wish they were. am so myself; and
the great numbers who come to the
polls right from across the ocean, from
under the heels Of despotism, with every
sentiment Of manhood almost crushed
out Of them, most OF them knowing no
more Of our government than the horse
you drive, and yet you give them the
right to vote, and would refuse it to the
colored man who was born among you
who has heard discussed from boy
hood up the great questions involved
in our Government-who has been
faithful to the dictates of better prinei-
pies, beyond any class of equal number
know. If you will make distinction
anf make intelligence the test, Mr.
| Democrat, do so, and you will, at least,
be free from the charge of partiality aud
fayoritism. But how is it as to ignor-
ance? Many of those colored men are
as intelligent as ourselves. Some of
them are the most efficient orators.
who can discuss with any man, don't
care who, all the complicated affairs of
Government with as much justness and
ability as the best of US. There are all
grades of intelligence among them as
among other men. In my Judgment
they are vastly better qualified to dis
charge the full duties of citizens of this
Government than the great mass, equal
or greater than they in number who are
permitted to vote. am not for strlk-
ing off any. Ny principles do not carry
me in that direction, because lhold that
whether we are ignorant, or rich, or
poor, it is the dictate of Eternal Justice,
if man lives under government he
should have the right to participate in
its privileges as well as duties. l am
glad to know that in order for a man
to discharge his duties to his Govern
ment right, it is not necessary he should
be profound jurist-that he should be
an accomplished statesman. If it were
so, republican government would be
absolutely impossible. 1t would bring
you back to these pinks Of aristocracy,
and in order to vote you would have to
bring a certificate from some learned
doctor that you had intelligence enough
to vote. No; all that is necessary in
our form of government to entitle him
to vote is that he wears in his bosom an
honest heart, and knows the difference
between right and wrong. No man
who enjoys the right to vote would part
with it. Who would not brand the
man as infamous who would attempt to
deprive him of it? Why? Because he
knows the existence and protection Of
our liberties depends upon it. Why is
it not so with the colored man? You
say he does not know as much. So
much the more necessity for him to have
the power to defeat your crafty schemes
against him You need not sympa-
thise with the millionaire, because he
has all lie wants. 1t is not the intelli-
gent and influential that need the pro-
lection of Government most, it is the
humble and ignorant. If you want to
know whether Government is worthy of
support or not, don't look to those who
are high in the land, but to the weak,
ignorant and humble. If Government
has thrown around thom the means of
protecting themselves, you need ask no
further questions. 1t is truly demo-
cratic Government. These men for
whom I advocate the right to vote as a
class, were most faithful when our
country was in jeopardy. Who ever
heard of colored men betraying the
country's cause when she was Strug-
Cling with the enemy in the heat of war7
Are there soldiers here that were in the
Southern States? l ask did you ever
appeal to a colored man there who was
not entirely faithful and ministered to
your welfare to the utmost of his abili-
ty7 | have talked with hundreds and
thousands of our soldiers, many of
whom had escaped from rebel prisons,
aud all agreed that without the colored
men they could not have gone mile
without being overtaken. l never
heard of man who said his trust was
betrayed.


No! The colored man in that coun7
try would aid our men in making es-
cape, even at peril of their own lives,
and yet these friends of our Govern
ment, of our soldiers, faithful and in
telligent as they must have been, how
does the Democracy propose to reward
them? Why, by permitting all their
own ignorant followers to vote, and
turning these men out without protec-
ton. Are they not entitled to some
thingat our hands? The man who says
they are not, has not the soul of man
in his bosom.


As to their intelligence, do you not
know that all over the South the colored
people are organized into schools, and
are doing more to advance themselves
in education than any other class, yea,
more rapidly than any other people in
the history Of the world. And let me
say from personal knowledge that un-
less the i" poor white trash" in that re-
gion, as they are called, hurry up their
cakes mighty fast, and put themselves
in course of training they never did
before, instead of negroes being the ig-
norant class, q blush to say it, the men
of our own color will he tha ignorant