Year: 1870

it is stin a condition-precedent on


the State of Mississippi to-day, and
you can not make it more binding bv
saying that it shall be considered q
condition-precedent two, three, or four
times over.


You ask me to repeat it on Missis-
sippi. / am satisfied that she has her
self made it a cOnditiOn-precede
and that is what am concerned to
know. If you want q cOndition-pre-
cedent, you have got it. If yon want
her under the power Of the COnstitu-
ton of the United States, you have it,
If the Constitution is really amended
in that behalf.


Is she honest? She seems to act
very much so. What else do YOU
want her to pledge herself to? She
has shown not only her desire to graf
ify the extreme of radicalism on this
question, but she sends here what
Massachusetts, cannot do and what
Ohio cannot do; she sends here a rep
resentative of the cOlOred race as q
Senator. is that mark enough for
you? ? Can you stand that, or do you
desire something else after she has
done all that? She has lifted up the
race, placed them in her legislative
halls, sent them here and installed
them in the Capitol of the nation /;
and yet you say to her, "Are you in
earnest? We doubt you. You seem
to act rather plausible on the subject
but really we think we will lie up
some fundamental conditions on you
to hold your You are afraid to trust
thirty thousand cOlOred majority in
the State of Mississippi, for fear here
after they will refuse to send you otll-
er representatives of their race, for,
sooth! What would you not distrust
if you are not willing to be satisfied
on the basis of what the State has al
ready done for you?


Then you say that in some future
time, some time intervening between
now and the sounding of Gabriel's
trump, you are afraid Mississippi will
undertake to change her law on the
subject of education. Is that any of
your business? Can you say to my
little State of Nebraska that she shall
never change her laws on the subject
of educOtion? She may change them
when she pleases, and she will ask
nothing of you or of this Congress,
and after she has changed them she
will be amenable only to the COnsti-
tuition of the United States. And if
thirty thousand majority of colOred
men-if a colored party in Mississippi
linked hand in hand with a large
white vote rs Republicans-if they
with thirty thousand colored majority
are nos abl~ to take care eff their edu-
cational interests, then appoint an ad-
ministr8tor for them, and leave the
State out until she can take care of
herself.


No, sir; it is a magnificent farce it
is q consumatiOn of Iadiealism run
mad TO say that you will not trust a
people who have thus done every
thing and little more than some of
you desired them to do. / welcome
her here on the basis of her radical
ism; I welcome her here on the prin-
ciples of her constitution L welcome
here her representatives of both races.
[ claim that it is an insult TO her to
talk to her in regard to the prObabili-
ties of her going back upon herself,
of these men there going back upon
themselves. Therefore l would leave
N her hands to-day the interests of
the State and the destiny of her peO-
pie, and take her as an ally in the fu-
ture march for the cOnsummatiOn of
all that we have politically desired in
this matter, rather than doubt her for
one moment when she has done ev-
erything you required her to do, and
when in your law you pledged your
self to her hat when she presented
herself here, having done that, she
should be admitted.


You claimed no control over her
further than that, and simply desired
to look into her action to see whether
she had acted in accordance with the
law. The law said "adopt the four
teenth amendment She has done it.
The law said "adopt the fifteenth
She has done it. The
law did not ask her to go so far as she
has gone in showing that she is in
earnest in regard to this matter by
sending here joint representatives of
the two races; but she has done that
and now, forsoOth, because you
thought Georgia had gone back upon
YOU, therefore you thought it neces-
SdEy W put CeIJdlu DllA Will It's COn-
ditions upon Virginia, and now to be
consistent the truly loyal State of
Mississippi is to be put through the
same process.


I vote first against the conditions
proposed, believing them to be unnec-
essary; but if they shall be adopted
by the Senate / shall yield to them,
and vote for the bill for the admission
of the State of Mississippi.