A VERY limited
statement of the argument for impartial suffrage, and for including the negro
in the body politic, would require more space than can be reasonably asked
here. It is supported by reasons as broad as the nature of man, and as numerous
as the wants of society. Man is the only government-making animal in the world.
His right to a participation in the production and operation of government is
an inference from his nature, as direct and self-evident as is his right to
acquire property or education. It is no less a crime against the manhood of a
man, to declare that he shall not share in the making and directing of the
government under which he lives, than to say that he shall not acquire property
and education. The fundamental and unanswerable argument in favor of the
enfranchisement of the negro is found in the undisputed fact of his manhood. He
is a man, and by every fact and argument by which any man can sustain his right
to vote, the negro can sustain his right equally. It is plain that, if the right
belongs to any, it belongs to all. The doctrine that some men have no rights
that others are bound to respect, is a doctrine which we must banish as we have
banished slavery, from which it emanated. If black men have no rights in the
eyes of white men, of course the whites can have none in the eyes of the
blacks. The result is a war of races, and the annihilation of all proper human
relations.
But suffrage for the
negro, while easily sustained upon abstract principles, demands consideration
upon what are recognized as the urgent necessities of the case. It is a measure
of relief, -- a shield to break the force of a blow already descending with
violence, and render it harmless. The work of destruction has already been set
in motion all over the South. Peace to the country has literally meant war to
the loyal men of the South, white and black; and negro suffrage is the measure
to arrest and put an end to that dreadful strife.
Something then, not by
way of argument, (for that has been done by Charles Sumner, Thaddeus Stevens,
Wendell Phillips, Gerrit Smith, and other able men,) but rather of statement
and appeal.
For better or for
worse, (as in some of the old marriage ceremonies,) the negroes are evidently a
permanent part of the American population. They are too numerous and useful to
be colonized, and too enduring and self-perpetuating to disappear by natural
causes. Here they are, four millions of them, and, for weal or for woe, here
they must remain. Their history is parallel to that of the country; but while
the history of the latter has been cheerful and bright with blessings, theirs
has been heavy and dark with agonies and curses. What O'Connell said of the
history of Ireland may with greater truth be said of the negro's. It may be
"traced like a wounded man through a crowd, by the blood." Yet the
negroes have marvellously survived all the exterminating forces of slavery, and
have emerged at the end of two hundred and fifty years of bondage, not morose,
misanthropic, and revengeful, but cheerful, hopeful, and forgiving. They now
stand before Congress and the country, not complaining of the past, but simply
asking for a better future. The spectacle of these dusky millions thus
imploring, not demanding, is touching; and if American statesmen could be moved
by a simple appeal to the nobler elements of human nature, if they had not
fallen, seemingly, into the incurable habit of weighing and measuring every
proposition of reform by some standard of profit and loss, doing wrong from
choice, and right only from necessity or some urgent demand of human
selfishness, it would be enough to plead for the negroes on the score of past
services and sufferings. But no such appeal shall be relied on here. Hardships,
services, sufferings, and sacrifices are all waived. It is true that they came
to the relief of the country at the hour of its extremest need. It is true
that, in many of the rebellious States, they were almost the only reliable
friends the nation had throughout the whole tremendous war. It is true that, notwithstanding
their alleged ignorance, they were wiser than their masters, and knew enough to
be loyal, while those masters only knew enough to be rebels and traitors. It is
true that they fought side by side in the loyal cause with our gallant and patriotic
white soldiers, and that, but for their help, -- divided as the loyal States
were, -- the Rebels might have succeeded in breaking up the Union, thereby
entailing border wars and troubles of unknown duration and incalculable
calamity. All this and more is true of these loyal negroes. Many daring
exploits will be told to their credit. Impartial history will paint them as men
who deserved well of their country. It will tell how they forded and swam
rivers, with what consummate address they evaded the sharp-eyed Rebel pickets,
how they toiled in the darkness of night through the tangled marshes of briers
and thorns, barefooted and weary, running the risk of losing their lives, to
warn our generals of Rebel schemes to surprise and destroy our loyal army. It will
tell how these poor people, whose rights we still despised, behaved to our
wounded soldiers, when found cold, hungry, and bleeding on the deserted
battle-field; how they assisted our escaping prisoners from Andersonville,
Belle Isle, Castle Thunder, and elsewhere, sharing with them their wretched
crusts, and otherwise affording them aid and comfort; how they promptly
responded to the trumpet call for their services, fighting against a foe that
denied them the rights of civilized warfare, and for a government which was
without the courage to assert those rights and avenge their violation in their
behalf; with what gallantry they flung themselves upon Rebel fortifications,
meeting death as fearlessly as any other troops in the service. But upon none
of these things is reliance placed. These facts speak to the better
dispositions of the human heart; but they seem of little weight with the
opponents of impartial suffrage.
It is true that a
strong plea for equal suffrage might be addressed to the national sense of
honor. Something, too, might be said of national gratitude. A nation might well
hesitate before the temptation to betray its allies. There is something
immeasurably mean, to say nothing of the cruelty, in placing the loyal negroes
of the South under the political power of their Rebel masters. To make peace
with our enemies is all well enough; but to prefer our enemies and sacrifice
our friends, -- to exalt our enemies and cast down our friends, -- to clothe
our enemies, who sought the destruction of the government, with all political
power, and leave our friends powerless in their hands, -- is an act which need
not be characterized here. We asked the negroes to espouse our cause, to be our
friends, to fight for us, and against their masters; and now, after they have
done all that we asked them to do, -- helped us to conquer their masters, and
thereby directed toward themselves the furious hate of the vanquished, -- it is
proposed in some quarters to turn them over to the political control of the
common enemy of the government and of the negro. But of this let nothing be
said in this place. Waiving humanity, national honor, the claims of gratitude,
the precious satisfaction arising from deeds of charity and justice to the weak
and defenceless, -- the appeal for impartial suffrage addresses itself with
great pertinency to the darkest, coldest, and flintiest side of the human
heart, and would wring righteousness from the unfeeling calculations of human
selfishness.
For in respect to this
grand measure it is the good fortune of the negro that enlightened selfishness,
not less than justice, fights on his side. National interest and national duty,
if elsewhere separated, are firmly united here. The American people can,
perhaps, afford to brave the censure of surrounding nations for the manifest
injustice and meanness of excluding its faithful black soldiers from the
ballot-box, but it cannot afford to allow the moral and mental energies of
rapidly increasing millions to be consigned to hopeless degradation.
Strong as we are, we
need the energy that slumbers in the black man's arm to make us stronger. We
want no longer any heavy- footed, melancholy service from the negro. We want
the cheerful activity of the quickened manhood of these sable millions. Nor can
we afford to endure the moral blight which the existence of a degraded and
hated class must necessarily inflict upon any people among whom such a class
may exist. Exclude the negroes as a class from political rights, -- teach them
that the high and manly privilege of suffrage is to be enjoyed by white
citizens only, -- that they may bear the burdens of the state, but that they
are to have no part in its direction or its honors, -- and you at once deprive
them of one of the main incentives to manly character and patriotic devotion to
the interests of the government; in a word, you stamp them as a degraded caste,
-- you teach them to despise themselves, and all others to despise them. Men
are so constituted that they largely derive their ideas of their abilities and
their possibilities from the settled judgments of their fellow-men, and
especially from such as they read in the institutions under which they live. If
these bless them, they are blest indeed; but if these blast them, they are
blasted indeed. Give the negro the elective franchise, and you give him at once
a powerful motive for all noble exertion, and make him a man among men. A
character is demanded of him, and here as elsewhere demand favors supply. It is
nothing against this reasoning that all men who vote are not good men or good
citizens. It is enough that the possession and exercise of the elective
franchise is in itself an appeal to the nobler elements of manhood, and imposes
education as essential to the safety of society.
To appreciate the full
force of this argument, it must be observed, that disfranchisement in a
republican government based upon the idea of human equality and universal
suffrage, is a very different thing from disfranchisement in governments based
upon the idea of the divine right of kings, or the entire subjugation of the
masses. Masses of men can take care of themselves. Besides, the disabilities
imposed upon all are necessarily without that bitter and stinging element of
invidiousness which attaches to disfranchisement in a republic. What is common
to all works no special sense of degradation to any. But in a country like
ours, where men of all nations, kindred, and tongues are freely enfranchised,
and allowed to vote, to say to the negro, You shall not vote, is to deal his manhood
a staggering blow, and to burn into his soul a bitter and goading sense of
wrong, or else work in him a stupid indifference to all the elements of a manly
character. As a nation, we cannot afford to have amongst us either this
indifference and stupidity, or that burning sense of wrong. These sable
millions are too powerful to be allowed to remain either indifferent or
discontented. Enfranchise them, and they become self-respecting and
country-loving citizens. Disfranchise them, and the mark of Cain is set upon
them less mercifully than upon the first murderer, for no man was to hurt him.
But this mark of inferiority -- all the more palpable because of a difference
of color -- not only dooms the negro to be a vagabond, but makes him the prey
of insult and outrage everywhere. While nothing may be urged here as to the
past services of the negro, it is quite within the line of this appeal to
remind the nation of the possibility that a time may come when the services of
the negro may be a second time required. History is said to repeat itself, and,
if so, having wanted the negro once, we may want him again. Can that
statesmanship be wise which would leave the negro good ground to hesitate, when
the exigencies of the country required his prompt assistance? Can that be sound
statesmanship which leaves millions of men in gloomy discontent, and possibly
in a state of alienation in the day of national trouble? Was not the nation
stronger when two hundred thousand sable soldiers were hurled against the Rebel
fortifications, than it would have been without them? Arming the negro was an
urgent military necessity three years ago, -- are we sure that another quite as
pressing may not await us? Casting aside all thought of justice and
magnanimity, is it wise to impose upon the negro all the burdens involved in
sustaining government against foes within and foes without, to make him equal
sharer in all sacrifices for the public good, to tax him in peace and conscript
him in war, and then coldly exclude him from the ballot- box?
Look across the sea. Is
Ireland, in her present condition, fretful, discontented, compelled to support
an establishment in which she does not believe, and which the vast majority of
her people abhor, a source of power or of weakness to Great Britain? Is not
Austria wise in removing all ground of complaint against her on the part of
Hungary? And does not the Emperor of Russia act wisely, as well as generously,
when he not only breaks up the bondage of the serf, but extends him all the
advantages of Russian citizenship? Is the present movement in England in favor
of manhood suffrage -- for the purpose of bringing four millions of British
subjects into full sympathy and co-operation with the British government -- a
wise and humane movement, or otherwise? Is the existence of a rebellious
element in our borders -- which New Orleans, Memphis, and Texas show to be only
disarmed, but at heart as malignant as ever, only waiting for an opportunity to
reassert itself with fire and sword -- a reason for leaving four millions of
the nation's truest friends with just cause of complaint against the Federal
government? If the doctrine that taxation should go hand in hand with
representation can be appealed to in behalf of recent traitors and rebels, may
it not properly be asserted in behalf of a people who have ever been loyal and
faithful to the government? The answers to these questions are too obvious to
require statement. Disguise it as we may, we are still a divided nation. The
Rebel States have still an anti-national policy. Massachusetts and South
Carolina may draw tears from the eyes of our tender-hearted President by
walking arm in arm into his Philadelphia Convention, but a citizen of
Massachusetts is still an alien in the Palmetto State. There is that, all over
the South, which frightens Yankee industry, capital, and skill from its
borders. We have crushed the Rebellion, but not its hopes or its malign
purposes. The South fought for perfect and permanent control over the Southern
laborer. It was a war of the rich against the poor. They who waged it had no
objection to the government, while they could use it as a means of confirming
their power over the laborer. They fought the government, not because they
hated the government as such, but because they found it, as they thought, in
the way between them and their one grand purpose of rendering permanent and
indestructible their authority and power over the Southern laborer. Though the
battle is for the present lost, the hope of gaining this object still exists, and
pervades the whole South with a feverish excitement. We have thus far only
gained a Union without unity, marriage without love, victory without peace. The
hope of gaining by politics what they lost by the sword, is the secret of all
this Southern unrest; and that hope must be extinguished before national ideas
and objects can take full possession of the Southern mind. There is but one
safe and constitutional way to banish that mischievous hope from the South, and
that is by lifting the laborer beyond the unfriendly political designs of his
former master. Give the negro the elective franchise, and you at once destroy
the purely sectional policy, and wheel the Southern States into line with
national interests and national objects. The last and shrewdest turn of
Southern politics is a recognition of the necessity of getting into Congress
immediately, and at any price. The South will comply with any conditions but
suffrage for the negro. It will swallow all the unconstitutional test oaths,
repeal all the ordinances of Secession, repudiate the Rebel debt, promise to
pay the debt incurred in conquering its people, pass all the constitutional
amendments, if only it can have the negro left under its political control. The
proposition is as modest as that made on the mountain: "All these things
will I give unto thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me."
But why are the
Southerners so willing to make these sacrifices? The answer plainly is, they
see in this policy the only hope of saving something of their old sectional
peculiarities and power. Once firmly seated in Congress, their alliance with
Northern Democrats re-established, their States restored to their former
position inside the Union, they can easily find means of keeping the Federal
government entirely too busy with other important matters to pay much attention
to the local affairs of the Southern States. Under the potent shield of State
Rights, the game would be in their own hands. Does any sane man doubt for a
moment that the men who followed Jefferson Davis through the late terrible
Rebellion, often marching barefooted and hungry, naked and penniless, and who
now only profess an enforced loyalty, would plunge this country into a foreign
war to-day, if they could thereby gain their coveted independence, and their
still more coveted mastery over the negroes? Plainly enough, the peace not less
than the prosperity of this country is involved in the great measure of
impartial suffrage. King Cotton is deposed, but only deposed, and is ready
to-day to reassert all his ancient pretensions upon the first favorable
opportunity. Foreign countries abound with his agents. They are able, vigilant,
devoted. The young men of the South burn with the desire to regain what they
call the lost cause; the women are noisily malignant towards the Federal
government. In fact, all the elements of treason and rebellion are there under
the thinnest disguise which necessity can impose.
What, then, is the work
before Congress? It is to save the people of the South from themselves, and the
nation from detriment on their account. Congress must supplant the evident
sectional tendencies of the South by national dispositions and tendencies. It
must cause national ideas and objects to take the lead and control the politics
of those States. It must cease to recognize the old slave-masters as the only
competent persons to rule the South. In a word, it must enfranchise the negro,
and by means of the loyal negroes and the loyal white men of the South build up
a national party there, and in time bridge the chasm between North and South,
so that our country may have a common liberty and a common civilization. The
new wine must be put into new bottles. The lamb may not be trusted with the
wolf. Loyalty is hardly safe with traitors.
Statesmen of America!
beware what you do. The ploughshare of rebellion has gone through the land
beam-deep. The soil is in readiness, and the seed-time has come. Nations, not
less than individuals, reap as they sow. The dreadful calamities of the past
few years came not by accident, nor unbidden, from the ground. You shudder
to-day at the harvest of blood sown in the spring-time of the Republic by your
patriot fathers. The principle of slavery, which they tolerated under the
erroneous impression that it would soon die out, became at last the dominant
principle and power at the South. It early mastered the Constitution, became
superior to the Union, and enthroned itself above the law.
Freedom of speech and
of the press it slowly but successfully banished from the South, dictated its
own code of honor and manners to the nation, brandished the bludgeon and the
bowie-knife over Congressional debate, sapped the foundations of loyalty, dried
up the springs of patriotism, blotted out the testimonies of the fathers
against oppression, padlocked the pulpit, expelled liberty from its literature,
invented nonsensical theories about master- races and slave-races of men, and
in due season produced a Rebellion fierce, foul, and bloody.
This evil principle
again seeks admission into our body politic. It comes now in shape of a denial
of political rights to four million loyal colored people. The South does not
now ask for slavery. It only asks for a large degraded caste, which shall have
no political rights. This ends the case. Statesmen, beware what you do. The
destiny of unborn and unnumbered generations is in your hands. Will you repeat
the mistake of your fathers, who sinned ignorantly? or will you profit by the
blood-bought wisdom all round you, and forever expel every vestige of the old
abomination from our national borders? As you members of the Thirty-ninth
Congress decide, will the country be peaceful, united, and happy, or troubled,
divided, and miserable.