Year: 1874

IeSl' anu ChiS Is Tie way. MIR. SPEAK


er, they would talk and feel every


where if they were not imposed upor


by demagogues who want to use


them for political purposes. and who


have no regard or sympathy fol


them when they have served theil


purposes.


Sir, I have some feeling upon this


subject; l have right to this feel


ing. The colored people Of my dis


trict met in convention on the Isl


day of last May and endorsed my


course in Congress, as they have


done on many occasions, and 1 will


not do an act or permit an act to be


done that | believe before God and


my country destroy the will schools


for the colored children and the poor


children Of my race; for if the color.


ed children are deprived of the bene.


fits Of the common schools, the same
causes will deprive the poor white


children.


Mr.. Speaker, we are told that it is
prejudice, and that if we pass the


bill the whites and blacks will send
their children to the same schools
and all will go we'll. Suppose we
grant that it is prejudice. Should
we not legislate with a view to that
prejudice? 1t is q great existing
fact that we must meet, and meet it
like men. To say that we can make
laws, as if that fact did not exist, to
benefit the race that the prejudice
exists against, is q statement that
must dissent from.


Mr.. Speaker, let us look into the
bill and examine its provisions.
Let me say here that [ sincerely
doubt the right Of Congress to pass
such an act.


Sir, | have never been what is
commonly known as a State-rights
man as understood by the Southern
States, but all must confess that
States have some rights, and it is
better for all that these rights be
reserved to these States. While
we preserve the rights that belong
to the States we must not forget in
dividual rights; they are far more
important than State-rights. I will
not attempt to discuss the constitu-
tlonality Of the bill even if l had
time, as doubtless the law will be
tested very soon after it shall have
been executed or attempted to be
executed, and as there seems to be
such diversity of opinion upon the
question, nothing short of a judicial
investigation will determine the
same. l see nothing in the bill ex-
cept the mixed-school feature but
what the colored people are now en-
titled to and are enjoying under the
Constitution and laws of the coun-
try. l might question the right Of
Congress to define who may be iur-
rors in State court, but as the
State law Of the State that l in part
represent have made no distinction
on account of race or color, | will
not stop to discuss that proposition.
Nevertheless it will strike many,
even republicans, with much doubt,
to say the least, of its constitution
ality. | have always believed it
was just and right for railroad com
panies if they charged a colored
person frst-class fare to give him
and his wife and children as accomo-
dations as any one, and most of the
railroad companies have provided
cars equal TO the best for tie ac-
commodations of the colored travel
ers and no one objects. The colored
people do not want to be put in cars
with the whites; that is not what
they complain of; it was that
they had to pay first-class fare and
be put in second or third-class cars.
mixed up often with drunken rowd-
les. smoking and using vulgar lam
guage in the presence of their wives
and daughters. That is wrong, and
no just man will say otherwise.


As to hotels, the laws regulate
them much better than Congress
can. L be colored people do not
want to eat and sleep with the whites
they want, if a hotel-keeper charges
them as much as he charges the
white guests. to have as good bed
and as good diet, and that certainly
is just and right. And / have heard
Of no complaint in my State. 1 find
in travelling along the railroads that
when the trains stop at the eating
houses a table is provided for the color
ed passengers, supplied with the same
and served by the same
servants as the whites, and they all
pay the same price, and both seem
These things are well de-
ined and understood by both white
md black: they have become used
% them, and no i'll or bad feelings
Exist between them, and if the col
,red people were left alone and not
with by those who are not
heir friends, who only excite them
md prejudice them against the
whites, all would go on smoothely.
N addition to a few white demago-
,ues, there are few colored men
II my district who ussume to be
eaders of the colored race, and an
occasional preacher who wants the
whites and blacks to intermarry,
nd have no regard for our State
avs on the subject of marriage,
which laws were enacted for the |
'enefit of both races, and all seemed |
with the law when it was
as forever fixing the
he status of the white and colored /
martial relations in Tennessee. and |
s the law punished the whites for
ntermarrying with the blacks just |
he same as it did the blacks for in
with the whites, neither
ace could complain. The law was
ested in the Supreme Court of the
United States and that court held
5 the law punished both alike. it
as in strict conformity to the civil
phts bill.