Mr. Saulsbury, of Delaware, followed Mr. Sumner. Then came Mr. Cowan, of Pennsylvania, who said he was “not disposed to allow the speech of the honorable Senator from Massachusetts to go to the country without a very brief reply. If that speech be true, and if it be a correct picture of the South, then God help us! then this Republic, this Union, is at an end.” He then vindicated President Johnson and General Grant against the charge of “whitewashing,” quoting passages from them. In the course of his speech, he said:--
“If the honorable Senator from Massachusetts, and those who think with him, desire that these people should have the right of suffrage, why not say so broadly?”
MR. COWAN. Very well; that is so much that is clear. Make it broadly; we may differ from him, but the people will decide.
Here again was issue joined on the great political question which awaited judgment.
The debate continued another day, but after that Mr. Wilson’s bill was never resumed. The object proposed was accomplished by other measures.
THE WHITES _vs._ COLORED SUFFRAGE IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
REMARKS IN THE SENATE, ON PRESENTING A PETITION FROM CITIZENS OF THE DISTRICT, DECEMBER 21, 1865.
I offer a petition of citizens of the District of Columbia, similar to petitions presented by me yesterday, calling upon Congress to provide irreversible guaranties in the work of Reconstruction, so that there shall be such security for the future, and, among such guaranties, proposing the enfranchisement of the colored race.
Sir, I am glad to present this petition from citizens of the District, because it shows that there are good people here who are not entirely indifferent to the great cause of Equal Rights. I am more disposed to make this remark because I see notice of a public meeting of whites here in the hope of arresting this cause. The whites can meet, if they please, and such a meeting, called under such auspices, may vote to continue their unjust pretensions; but any vote by them will be, under the circumstances, little better than an absurdity. The whites of the District of Columbia, in respect to the colored people, are no better than squatters, and those who for generations have squatted on the rights of others do not quietly give up. But it is our duty to dispossess them. Hereafter nobody should be allowed to squat on the rights of others, civil or political.