be remuneration. We are told that we are
to be paid in "blood and treasure," the
blood shied on the plains of Virginia and else-
where, where these great battles have been
fought, and the carnage that has taken place,
adding mockery lo insult.
it is ruinous, not only to us, as it takes
away our property, but ruinous to the slaves
themselves, I will not use hard terms, but I
will ask what is to become of them? I have
a. house erected for an old faithful servant.
I have women and children, as much re-
quiring constant outlay and expense to sustain
them, as it does to sustain myself. How are
they to be sustained? Am I not only to be
deprived of my property of value, but am I
to be further charged with this other proper-
ty of no value, and must I daily, hourly,
incur further expense for them? Is there jus-
tice—is there honesty in this? Is it fair deal-
ing, which any man, in his private character,
would venture to engage in, and subject him-
self to the imputations of want of integrity
which would be beaped upon him if he did
engage in it?
I am unwilling to enlarge upon this topic,
fruitful as it is of remark. I repeat that it is
more ruinous to the slave even than to the
inaster. I have known large families, con-
sisting of thirty or forty negroes, to be manu-
mitted at a blow, in a court of justice. In a
very few years, I have seen the last remaining
member of that concern, the rest being either
dead on the dunghill or confined in the peni-
tentiary for crime. They are degraded in
point of intellect; they are uninformed as to
the means of self-protection, and incapable of
making provision for the future. They are
turned loose without means even of present
subsistence; and for no purpose on earth, and
without any honest expectation on the part of
those who are to turn them loose, that any
ether consequence will follow than further
degradation, the perpetration of further crime
and every sort of vice. The necessary con-
sequence will be the same fate that has awaited
the red man upon our BORDER=0, final extirpa-
tion as a nuisance intolerable in any commu-
nity of which white men are members.
I say that no good reason has been given
for it. It is a stretch of power, and a flagrant
violation of the provisions of the Constitu-
tion. It is a measure of injustice and injury
to the slaves. The only excuse given is the
condition of the country and the suppression
of the rebellion. I deny that there is any
foundation for an argument upon that subject.
If the government of the United States wants
them, they are more likely to get them now
than if you manumit the few remaining able
men in slavery. Their masters now have no
motive to do anything else with them than to
put them into the army. Only yesterday I was
told by a gentleman who came from the Dis
trict of Columbia, that there are thousands
of negroes there, who are fugitives from the |
different counties to avoid enlistment, to avoid
the draft. The able-bodied men are nearly
all gone. What few there are, are no more
likely to go, or to be useful should they go,
But you manumit not only those who are
competent to assist the Government as sol-
diers, but the feeble, the aged, the incompe-
tent, the women and children, who can be of
no service, and they all flock to the Govern-
ment and demand support from them. That
is the experience of those who have already
gone off, and why should it not be the expe-
rience of those yet to go off? The game mo-
tive operates on them, and why should not
their conduct be the same? You then in-
crease the expenditures of the Government—
God knows they are large enough now.
There is no necessity, and you certainly do
not benefit them. But you require a much
larger outlay of money, a much larger issue
of paper, now depreciated, I think, to some-
thing like two hundred for one hundred in
gold. You cannot certainly benefit the Gov-
ernment by a process which creates a very
heavy burden and adds nothing to its mili-
tary force.
In no sense can I conceive how this act can
be justified upon the necessity of aiding the
Government to crush the rebellion. Yet I
have beard no other reason assigned, no other
argument urged for the passage of this very
iniquitous article proposed to be inserted in
the bill of rights.
Sir, I say again, that I believe these people
will follow the fate of the Indians. Two
such different races cannot mingle as equals.
Experience has taught that all over the world,
and has never failed to leach us here. It has
been perfectly understood by the best and
wisest men of our country, and I think all
future experience will further confirm and
fortify it.
As to all these appeals to popular feeling
which have been made in reference to this ar-
gument, of the bad character of the insurgent
traitors—I do not mean to make any excuse
for these men—I can only say, as I said early
in the session, that I think this is neither the
time nor the place, either for making any ap-
peal in favor of the Government on the one
hand, or in denunciation of the rebellious
portion of the Union on the other. We came
here to make a law, a constitution, to create
a government. I think our great duty is to
make the Government, meaning thereby a
system which shall protect us by preserving,
and not by destroying our property; by se-
curing and not by defeating or violating our
personal liberty: by securing to us all the
legitimate objects for which governments are
instituted. I submit to my friends whether
they think they are acting in the course of
their appropriate duty when they are passing
their time in commendation of General Grant
or anybody else, or in any other way, to the
neglect of the duty which is demanded of |
