best reforms are always accomplished in rev-
olutions.
It is said, what are you going to do with
this class of people? 'Do with them? Let
anybody go out on this railroad to Camp Pa-
role, and if he does not see more greenbacks
in the pockets of some of the wenches and
other negroes travelling on that road than are
in the pockets of many of the white people,
1 will confess myself greatly mistaken. Every-
body knows that these people are now abun-
dantly able to make their own living. It is
true that gentlemen say they make it at the
expense of their masters, at the expense of
those who own them, But how can we with
any consistency say that, when in addition
to the practical emancipation accomplished
by this war we have added legal emancipa-
tion? We cannot say it is unjust to the mas-
ters that these negroes make their own living.
And will anybody say that any negro boy
sixteen years of age, or even twelve years of
age, is not able to make his own living now?
You cannot get labor, black or white, though
you cry for it. Old colored men are now get-
ting wages in this State at the rate of two dol-
lars and a half a day. A gentleman told me
the other day that he paid two dollars and a
half a day to an old colored man for white-
washing a wall, and could not get him for
less.
Gentlemen talk about protecting these poor
helpless negroes. The negro has no appre-
hension on the subject; they feel no difficulty
about the future. Let them take care of
themselves, if they are satisfied to do it.
In conclusion, let me say that the existing
legislation remedies all the practical evils
which ought to be remedied. Those masters
who now have negro children in their infan-
cy can be fully protected under the existing
system. But this proposed section, if adopt-
ed, would place in the constitution beyond
the control of the legislature any opportuni-
ty to alter that system, however necessary
and important any such alteration may be-
come. And I say again, it puts into the con-
stitution something which looks inconsistent
with what we have already done, and which
must be accepted by the people in that light.
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. The amendment which
1 submitted to the convention has provoked
much more discussion than I anticipated;
discussion not confined to the amendment it-
self, hut going over the whole ground cov-
ered by the proposition of the gentleman from
Caroline (Mr. Todd.) And it has been met
not only by arguments, but by assumptions
the most unwarranted, and in at least one
instance, by a sneer that would have been con-
temptible in defence of any other than so
worthless a cause as this.
1 propose to say a few words in opposition
to the proposition of the gentleman from Car-
oline (Mr. Todd,) and in advocacy of my
own. It is well perhaps at the outset to see |
where we shall stand if the proposition of the
gentleman from Caroline should not he adopt-
ed, and where we shall be placed in the
event of its adoption. The law as it now
stands upon our statute book makes abundant
provision for all possible cases which
can arise. And it doc's it with all the fulness
of detail which in an act of assembly is per-
fectly proper, but which you cannot incorpo-
rate into a constitution provision. It pro-
vides, Code, article 6, section, 31 :
" The several orphans' courts of this State
shall, upon information being given to them,
summon before them the child of any free negro,
and if it shall appear upon examination
before such court that it would be" better for
the habits and comfort of such child that it
should be bound as an apprentice to some
white person to learn to labor, the court shall
bind such child as an apprentice to some
white person, if a male, till he is of the age
of twenty-one years, or if a female, till she is
of the age of eighteen years."
Wherever the comfort and habits of such
child require that such binding shall take place,
it is obligatory upon the court to so bind it.
But this most monstrous' proposition of the
gentleman from Caroline proposes that the or-
phans' courts shall take all negroes who are
minors, without an exception, and bind them '
out as apprentices. And now upon what
ground? Is it on the ground that it is for the
good of the minors? Let gentlemen take up
and examine the principle upon which they
have founded their previous action. That
principle, if I understand it, is that all men
have some rights; and if there be one right
common to all men which is more sacred than
another, it is the right of the parent to fester
and educate the child; and the obligation of
the child to support and soothe the declining
years of his parents is not more binding or
obligatory. It is the right of the parents,
wherever their character is such that they
are capable of taking care of their children,
to guide them in their early years.
Now what is proposed by the gentleman
from Caroline (Mr. Todd) to be done? It is
proposed to take, without a single exception,
every female child who shall be emancipated
by the operation of this constitution, who
shall be under eighteen years of age, from her
parents, whatever may be their condition,
however able and willing they may be to sup-
port her, and bind her in unwilling servitude
until she shall have attained the age of eigh-
teen years; and to take every male" child in
the same way until be shall have reached the
age of twenty-one years. Now where is the
right, the justice, aye, the decency of such a
provision? And more, it is proposed by
these same gentlemen to bind them in an ig-
gorance which shall be life-long. For the
very advocates of this proposition oppose the
amendment which I have offered, that these
people shall, in this involuntary servitude, be |
