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 SERVICE OF THE MILITIA. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 HON. JAMES HARLAN, OF IOWA, 
 
 DELIVKRED 
 
 In the United States Senate, July 11, 1862. 
 
 — : 
 
 The Senate having uiulcr consideration the bill to amond 
 the act ca'liDg forth the militia to execute the laws of the 
 Union, to suppress iusurrcctions, and repel invasions — 
 
 Mr. HARLA-N said : Mr. President, I 
 think there can be no doubt but that the Pres- 
 ident has the power, under existing hiws, to 
 call out more troops ; and he is, probably, act- 
 in'j in pursuance of that authority in the inti- 
 mations given to the Governors of the States th;il 
 more would be accepted. One object, I believe, 
 in passing this bill, is to enable him to call 
 them out for a longer period than the law now 
 authorizes, should he deem it necessary. If this 
 bill should become a law it will al.so be an inti- 
 mation to the President that in the opinion of 
 Congress a change of policy is desirable in the 
 particulars that have been referred to by the 
 Senators who have spoken this morning. Nor 
 do I think that such an intimation by Congress 
 ought to be or would be considered by the Pres 
 ideut offensive or undesirable. None who un- 
 derstand the frankness of his nature could 
 entertain Sach an opinion. If, in the opinion 
 of Congress, any change of policy, however 
 small or great, is de.sivable, I have no doubt 
 he would be gratified with a clear, unequivocal 
 expression of that opinion. Hence, if the 
 President ha? the power to do all that is con 
 tem plated by the proposed amendments, their 
 adoption can do no harm, and may do gorfd. 
 It divides the responsibility ; and should he 
 find it necessary to follow this intimation, he 
 will have the support of Congress. And, on 
 the other hand, if existing laws do not, as 
 some suppose, confer on him this power, it is 
 clearly granted by the provisions of this bill 
 and pending amendments. The people, also, 
 have a right to know that the President's pol- 
 icy is approved by their immediate representa- 
 tives in the national legislature. I therefore 
 differ in opinion with the Senator from Penn^ 
 sylvania, [Mr, Cowax,| if I understand cor- 
 rectly the views presented by him this morning 
 on this point ; and still more radically in rela- 
 tion to the relative rights of the Government 
 and the people of the rebellious States. If I 
 understood him correctly in the expression of 
 his views on this subject a few days since, they 
 are quite similar to if not identically the same 
 as those entertained by Jefferson Davis, and so 
 frequently expressed by him and his associate 
 
 conspirators on this floor during the last Con- 
 gress. If I understood his speech correctly, 
 he believes that when the people within the 
 limits of any State, with consider?,ble or 
 practical unanimity, are opposed to the Gov- 
 ernment of the United States, and desire to 
 release themselves from its restraints, they have 
 a right to dissolve the Union and to organize a 
 new Government for themselves. 
 
 Mr. COWAN. I stated, as I remember most 
 distinctly, that at the outset of this rebellion we 
 had a right to take one of two courses : we had 
 the right to assume that these States were out 
 of the Union, and we could, by virtue of our 
 power as a nation, make war upon the'm ; could 
 make conquest of them, and subjugate them. 
 Bat I desire to say this: that what I suppose 
 ^as taken to resemble secession was the fact 
 that I asserted: proceeding as we did up^n the 
 ground that we would not make conquest and 
 subjugation, if, at the end of that time, it was 
 found that there were no loyal people there, I 
 said there wp.s an end of it, unless we fell back, 
 upon our rights anas a nation to make conques-t 
 and subjugation ; and that was the whole of it. 
 [ say so still, and am prepared to stand upon.it 
 anywhere. I think it is unexceptionable. 
 
 Mr. HARLAN. I did not use the name- of 
 the rebel thief in this connection for the pur- 
 pose of forming an offensive association of 
 names, and had no intention of giving offence. 
 I alluded to what appeared to me to be s-imi- 
 larity of argument, and not similarity of char- 
 acter. And I suppose it possible for the r&bel 
 Davis to entertain correct opinions on the the- 
 ory of government, while his conduct has been 
 so disastrous to the interests of the nation, and 
 especially to his own section of the country. 
 Abating any offensive features of the allusion, 
 I will reiterate that the Senator, as I under- 
 stood him, repeated the arguments of the rebel 
 Senators who occupied seats on the other side 
 of the Chamber about a year since. They main- 
 tained that the people of a State had the right 
 10 dissolve their connection with this Govern- 
 .msnt, and either remain as an independent 
 State, assuming a distinct nationality, or to af- 
 filiate with other States for that purpose ; that 
 the people of a State of the Union may, at their 
 own election, renounce their allegiance to the 
 Federal Government without consultation w.ith 
 
 
*l^ < 
 
 thepeople of any other State, or of all the remain 
 ing States combined ; that the continuance of 
 the Union depended on the volition or caprice 
 of the people of each of its parts. I understood 
 the Senator to lay down the same premises. 
 He said that when this war broke out, every- 
 body supposed that a large part of the people 
 of the rebellious districts were loyal ; that the 
 war was prosecuted on our part to enable these 
 loyal people to organize and maintain their 
 State governments under the Constitution, as 
 heretofore ; but that if there were no loyal peo 
 pie in any one of these States, it was the end 
 of the controversy; that all just Governments 
 derived their powers from the consent of the 
 governed. Now, Mr. President, as it seems to 
 me, the only conclusion that can be derived 
 from this process of reasoning is, that if the 
 people of a State, with substantial unanimity, 
 desire to secede, they have the right to do so. 
 Nor do I understand the Senator to have op- 
 posed this doctrine this morning. He would 
 not have advised the people of any State to se- 
 cede; he does not think it was best for them to 
 secede ; be thinks it a great calamity that they 
 should attempt to secede ; he did not, and per- 
 haps does not still, believe that the people of 
 any one &f these States did, with anything like 
 unanimity, give their voluntary assent to any 
 act of secession ; but, nevertheless, if they did, 
 in fact, with ordinary unanimity, desire to dis- 
 solve the Union, and are still disloyal, and de- 
 liberately resist the authority of the Govern- 
 ment of the United States, I understand him to 
 maintain that we have no constitutional au- 
 thority to put them down. I disagree with him. 
 If every inhabitant of any one of the States of 
 the Union desired to secede, I do not admit 
 they have the right to dissolve the Union. I 
 maintain that the provision in the Coui-titution 
 which says, " the citizens of each State shall be 
 entitled to all the privileges and immunities of 
 citizens of the several States,'' is in direct con- 
 flict with that assumption. I claim, as a citi- 
 zen of the United States from the State of Iowa, 
 that I have a right to the protection of the Uni- 
 ted States in South Carolina, in Georgia, in 
 Louisiana, and that it is the duty of this Gov- 
 ernment to afford me the same protection in 
 any other State of the Union that I can claim 
 of this Government in the State in which I hap- 
 pen to reside. Whenever interest, pleasure, or 
 curiosity induces me to enter another State of 
 the Union, the National Government has pledged 
 me its protection. This is an unconditional 
 obligation. It does not depend on the people 
 of the particular locality. I am no less a citi- 
 zen of the United States in South Carolina than 
 in Iowa, and my right to claim protection of 
 person and property, and redress of grievances, 
 is as complete in any other State as in that of 
 my domicil. This view, however, pertains not 
 alone to the individual rights of each citizen. 
 It is equally applicable to the people of the na 
 
 tion in the aggregate. The people of the whole 
 country have the right, in common, to navigate 
 the waters of every part, to carry on commerce, 
 and to use either land or water in making a 
 common defence against a foreign enemy. The 
 rivers, harbors, inlets, bays, and forts in Louis- 
 iana, Georgia, or in South Carolina, are as 
 much the property of the people of Iowa as of 
 the people of the States named. We are taxed 
 to improve the one and to construct the other, 
 and have a right to demand that they shall be 
 held for the common good. Tf-e harbors at 
 New Orleans, Charleston, or New York have 
 not been improved and fortified for the people 
 of those localities alone ; they are seaports for 
 the people of the interior as much as for those 
 of the coast. And in practice it may be quite 
 as important for the welfare of the people whom 
 I represent in part that a Ibreign enemy should 
 be met and repelled at New Orleans as at Keo- 
 kuk or Dubuque. 
 
 Nor do I admit the truth of the Senator's 
 corollary that harmonious opposition to the 
 authority of the United States by the people of 
 the rebel States would render it impossible for 
 us to crush the rebellion, I know it is fre- 
 quently asserted that six or eight million peo- 
 ple, fighting for a specific purpose, can never 
 be overcome. These assertions, I think, are 
 made without reflection, and usually by popu- 
 lar orators from the hustings ; but when made 
 seriously, in a grave, deliberative body, per- 
 haps the public welfare may require a serious 
 answer. At least members of Congress ought 
 to try it, by the light of history before adopting 
 it as a controlling fact in legislating for the 
 perpetuity of a great nation ; and they need 
 not travel back very far on the page of history 
 to discover how surprisingly naked the false- 
 hood stands. Ireland was crushed, Scotland was 
 overthrown, and all their people were merged 
 with the English in a common nationality. The 
 English themselves have been more than once 
 completely overrun, and were finally subju- 
 gated, and their whole feudal system com- 
 pletely changed. Poland has been conquered, 
 divided, and her nationality wiped out, so that 
 she no longer has a place among the family of 
 nations. 
 
 Mr, COWAN. Allow me to ask the gentle- 
 man whether it was not the dissensions of Po- 
 land, the very fact that she was not united, that 
 caused her overthrow ? 
 
 Mr, HARLAN, I will answer by asking 
 where is Hungary, a more recent case of re- 
 bellion? There were many million people 
 practically united, a martial people, highly cul- 
 tivated, struggling against a despotic power 
 for their independence, who, within the mem- 
 ory of these boys acting as pages, have been 
 crushed by the superior military power of their 
 enemies, 
 
 Mr, COWAN. If the gentleman will allow 
 me, I will refer to Hungary as one of the 
 
strongest examples against his theory. I will 
 ask him whether there were not in Hungary 
 three or four distinct races of men; that the}' 
 have never been able to unite them in one 
 solid compact body 5 and whether it was not 
 by means of their dissensions that the Aus- 
 trians were enabled to overcome them ; whether 
 they do not divide and conquer them always ? 
 
 Mr. LANE, of Kansas. If the Senator from 
 Iowa will permit me, I wish to say but a single 
 word. The Senator from Pennsylvania is op- 
 posing a proposition upon this fljor that he 
 well knows will divide and array four million 
 people against six million in these rebellious 
 States. 
 
 Mr. HARLAN. Although what the Senator 
 from Pennsylvania .says may be technically 
 true, that the inhabitants of Hungary, many 
 ages back, may have originated in different 
 nationalities, he knows very well that in that 
 struggle they were practically united. The Aus 
 trians never were able to organize a loyal army 
 in Hungary from her own people until they had 
 crushed out the armies led by the Magyars, and 
 scattered their leaders as fugitives over the face 
 of the earth. Nor was there any division of the 
 armed inhabitants of Poland to obstruct the 
 success of her armies in fighting for a nation- 
 ality then as old and as firmly established as 
 the other nations of Europe. Poland was 
 crushed because her enemies were able to wield 
 superior physical power. 
 
 But, sir, the history of the world is full of 
 illustrations. Where is Mexico? Ten million 
 people practically united, a large part of them 
 of Castilian origin, imperious and martial in 
 spirit and habits, accustomed to the use of arms, 
 as a profession and for amusement, from child- 
 hood, inhabiting a country far more ditHcult 
 than the rebel States, and led by a gallant and 
 fiuccesstul general, whose successes had secured 
 him the title of the Napoleon of America, were 
 crushed by your own arms, when your entire 
 population did not equal the present population 
 of the loyal States of the Union. You sent 
 your armies and munitions of war a thousand 
 miles by sea to invade their homes, and fought 
 them many hundreds of miles south of New 
 Orleans, and yet, in two short years, you com- 
 pletely crushed her armies, and scattered them 
 in guerrilla bands to prey on their own people 
 like a cloud of locusts. Her nationality was 
 80 crushed that your generals were compelled 
 to organize for them a provisional government 
 with which to make treaties of peace and amity, 
 your own government dictating the terms. But, 
 sir, I need not repeat minor examples. I will 
 ask the Senator, if F' ranee, within his own 
 memory, was not crushed by the opposing 
 Powers of Europe ? In civilization and refine- 
 ment, in a knowledge of the arts and sciences, 
 in the martial spirit of her people, in the cour- 
 age, experience, skill, and renown of her field 
 marshals, France has no superior; and jet, 
 
 while under the leadership of Napoleon the 
 Great, France was crushed. The Emperor of 
 the French was carried by his captors to aa 
 island in the deep sea, where he lived the cap- 
 tive of jealous kings, and died a prisoner of 
 State. France, standing at the head of the 
 nations, was compelled to receive a ruler dic- 
 tated by her conquerors ! 
 
 Is it necessary to consume more time in refu- 
 tation of the assumption, that if the people of 
 the rebel States are united they cannot be con- 
 quered ? If Ireland could be crushed, if Scot- 
 land could be crushed, if England could be 
 crushed, if Poland could be crushed, if Hunga- 
 ry could be crushed, if Mexico could be crush- 
 ed, and if France herself could be crushed, 
 why may not twenty-four loyal States crush out 
 the rebellion in ten States? If the people of 
 the twenty- four loyal States admit their inability, 
 it will be a mournful confession of inferiority 
 which will make their memory a stench in the 
 nostrils of their own posterity. 
 
 But, sir, the people of the rebel States are 
 not united. The amendments now pending 
 have been offered on the assumption that there 
 are nearly four million people within the limits 
 of those States who are loyal. Ik all the States 
 tolerating slavery there are said to be four mil- 
 lion slaves. Excluding Delaware, Mirylaijd, 
 Western Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and 
 Missouri, probably the negroes are equal to 
 three sevenths of the entire population. Prob- 
 ably two-sevenths of the whole population and 
 of our race, within the limits of these States, are 
 loyal ; or, in the aggregate, five-seventhsjof the 
 whole population, black and white. This is not 
 an extravagant estimate. We all kaow from 
 concurrent history, that a large number of the 
 soldiers in the rebel armies are serving by com- 
 pulsion ; and hundreds of thousands of non-com- 
 batants are compelled by these armed conscripts 
 to submit to the rebel authority, to avoid person- 
 al violence and the confiscation of their proper- 
 ty. The folly of our own Government and com- 
 manding generals in the field has exercised no 
 small share of influence in producing this re- 
 sult. We have carefully protected the property 
 of rebels in both loyal and disloyal States, and 
 have spurned the assistance of the loyal por- 
 tions of communities under the civil control of 
 rebel leaders. The object of this bill is to in- 
 augurate a different policy ; to secure the or- 
 ganization of the loyal people in the disloyal 
 districts, under the flag of the Union, and make 
 it the interest of all loyal people to aid in es- 
 tablishing the supremacy of the C )ns'itution 
 and the laws ; thus adopting in practice the 
 adage, " divide and conquer," used in its high- 
 est and most honorable sense. 
 
 This policy is demanded by the highest and 
 most sacred considerations of humanity. It 
 would shorten the struggle, and consequently 
 save hundreds of millions of treasure and tens 
 of thousands of valuable lives. What could be 
 
greater folly than to fight the whole population 
 of the rebel districts, when only about two- 
 sevenths are your real enemies ? What but 
 madness or real disloyalty at heart could in- 
 dube any commanding general to compel the 
 five sevenths, or less, as the case may be, to 
 acquiesce in and indirectly support the rebel- 
 lion ? Is it not a duty that we owe to ourselves, 
 as well as to them, to avail ourselves of this 
 proflered aid? 
 
 I k'jow some of the Representatives and 
 Senators from slaveholding States object to the 
 arming of colored people, and I will consider 
 these objections presently. 
 
 We have seen, when examined in the light 
 of history, no sane man could reasonably doubt 
 the ability of the twenty-four loyal States to 
 crush the rebellion in ten States, if the people 
 of the ten were acting as a unit ; we have seen 
 also that nothing but the most stupid blind- 
 ness, if not criminality on our part, can secure 
 unanimity in the rebel districts ; hence, that 
 we can crush the rebellion spee'^lly if we act 
 ■wisely. If any one doubts the correctness of 
 this conclusion, let us judge of our ability in 
 the future by what we have achieved during 
 the past year. It is little more than a year 
 since the war was commenced by the rebels 
 at Fort Sumter, near Charleston. Since then 
 political animosities in all the free States, on 
 which the leaders of the rebellion counted 
 so largely for succor, have been substantially 
 buried ; and although we commenced almost 
 without an army and without a navy, whatever 
 there was of rebellious feeling in Delaware has 
 been suppressed ; whatever rebellion existed in 
 Maryland has been destroyed ; the rebellion in 
 one-third of Virginia, the western part of Vir- 
 ginia, has been entirely put down, so that I be- 
 lieve there is hardly a guerrilla left to annoy 
 the peaceful inhabitants ; the rebellion in Ken- 
 tucky has been crushed out, the rebel armies 
 within her limits have melted away into guer- 
 rilla bands, and these are rapidly disappearing. 
 Tennessee is under the control of the old flag. 
 The rebellion has been crushed in Missouri. 
 Although overwhelmed from Arkansas to Iowa 
 but a few months since with rebel armies, which 
 controlled the whole country, now her own 
 home guards are able to furnish ample protec- 
 tion to the peaceful pursuits of life. Whatever 
 of rebellion existed in the Territories has been 
 suppressed ; large rebel armies have been driven 
 out of New Mexico. The Mississippi river has 
 been opened from Cairo to its mouth ; nearly 
 every fortification on either bank has been cap 
 tured and is now garrisoned by loyal troops. 
 All the great cities of the South threatened or 
 controlled by the rebellion have been captured 
 and are in your possession. St. Louis, Balli 
 more, Alexandria, Wheeling, Norfolk, Lexing- 
 ton, Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans, and a 
 host of towns of minor importance, are all in 
 your possession. Two cities of some political 
 
 consequence and of less commercial importance, 
 Richmond and Charleston, only remain in the 
 possession of the rebels. The entire coast from 
 the Rio Grande to the Potomac, and all its de- 
 fences, are in your possession, and are defended 
 by strong garrisons. The rebel fleets have been 
 swept from the sea. Not a rebel ship, I believe, 
 remains afloat to excite the cnpidity of sailor or 
 marine. Nearly every armed rebel boat has been 
 captured, sunk, or destroyed. The rebels, I be- 
 lieve, have scarcely one gun or man afloat on 
 river, harbor, lake, or ocean. While your gallant 
 Navy has thus effectually destroyed every ves- 
 tige of rebellion within reach of its guns, your 
 Army has not been idle, a3 is demonstrated in 
 the general results mentioned. Not to partic- 
 ularize hundreds of great successes, yet of minor 
 importance, I might mention the capture of two 
 lai-ge rebel armies, with all their guns, supplies, 
 and equipments — one at Fort Henry, the other 
 at Donelson. They have crushed, routed, and 
 dispersed another at Pea Ridge •, so that what 
 remains of the rebel forces west of the Missis- 
 sippi is a greater curse to their own friends than 
 annoyance to the Union troops. They have 
 crushed and scattered atiother, far more gigan- 
 tic in its proportions, at Corinth, so that noth- 
 ing much superior to a guerrilla warfare is now 
 carried on in either Louisiana or Mississippi. 
 Your troops have secured a firm lodgment 
 within the limits of every one of the rebel States. 
 And even in front of Richmond, where the en- 
 emy have concentrated all their forces, appa- 
 rently for a last desperate effort, and where I 
 doubt not, on account of this concentration, 
 they outnumbered our own gallant army mo\e 
 than two to one, after a series of pitched bat- 
 tles, extending over a period of seven or eight 
 days, the Union flag is still floating in triumph, 
 the army rests in a more secure position than 
 when the first gun was fired by the enemy, its 
 columns unbroken, undaunted in spirit, buoy- 
 ant and confident; its flanks fully protected by 
 a fleet of gunboats, and its communication with 
 its supplies perfectly secure. If properly rein- 
 forced and supported by the Government and 
 people, of which I have no doubt, this gallant, 
 unconquered, and unconquerable army of the 
 Potomac will be able, notwithstanding the check 
 which it has received, to accomplish the object 
 of the campaign in the course of the next thirty 
 days. 
 
 Then I inquire, in all candor, for the cause 
 of the despondence which has been manifested 
 in this Chamber. After this review of their 
 achievements, are we not content with it as the 
 fruits of their toil and exposure for but a single 
 year? The armies of Rome, during her most 
 palmy days, never accomplished half so much 
 in so short a period. It is true many men 
 have fallen in the field of battle ; some have 
 been killed and many wounded, and many 
 more have fallen on account of exposure and 
 sickness incident to camp life. And still oth- 
 
era have been uselessly sacrificed by drudj^ery 
 from which it seems to be the purpose of the 
 Senate to relieve them in the future, and which 
 may be set down as the fruits of the folly, h'lii- 
 otry, or inexperience of generals, who are, io 
 the main, officers of great ability and merit. 
 But all these losses, when added together, are 
 comparatively trivial ; they have not diminish- 
 ed the probabilities of our speedy triumph in 
 the least ; nor has the physical power and 
 strength of the nation been diminished on ac- 
 couut of the war one iota. I do not doubt but 
 that an enumeration of the population of the 
 United States, if taken to-day, would show our 
 increase during the past year, notwithstanding 
 those losses, to have been as great as it has 
 been during any other year of the existence of 
 this nation. The Almighty never inflicts on a 
 people two great calamities at the same time. 
 When they are cursed with a war that is sweep- 
 ing away its tliousands, He never has, I think 
 I may say without irreverence He never will, 
 afflict them at the same time with pestilence 
 and famine. I know that the rebels have been 
 counting on the destruction of our armies by 
 plagues and fevers. I have not. I have known 
 that the people of the whole country would be 
 more vigorous and healthy during the contin 
 uance of this civil war than they have been for 
 an age past. It is in the order of Providence 
 that it should be so ; and if Senators will but 
 look around them they will find that it has 
 been so sinee the war commenced. You have 
 had no cholera, you have had no yellow fever, 
 you have had no plagues or famine to sweep 
 away your people. The Almighty has visited 
 us with one great curse during the past year — 
 civil war. This has carried off its thousands. 
 None have died with cholera, plague, or yellow 
 fever ; and the ordinary diseases of the country 
 have' been of a milder type than usual. We 
 are probably numerically stronger to-day than 
 we were the day the rebels opened their batte- 
 ries on Fort Sumter. 
 
 The Senator from New York [Mr. Kixg] 
 says he does not despair of the Rppublic. Nor 
 do I. Why should I despair? Mr. President, 
 I do not doubt our final success. We not only 
 have the power, but in my judgment will con- 
 tinue to possess the power, if we are but faith- 
 ful to ourselves, to crush out whatever still ex- 
 ists of this rebellion. 
 
 I am not, however, blind to what seems to 
 me to be the intimations of an overruling Prov- 
 idence, as this struggle progresses, and 1 would 
 express it, of course, with great deference ; but 
 in my judgment this struggle will not be closed 
 until slavery shall have been practically termi- 
 nated. I believe that the overruling hand ot 
 God is in this war. I believe that He has suf- 
 fered us to come to blows for the very purpose 
 of developing this great good to the human 
 family. There are but two civilized enlight 
 eued nations oa earth that permit human 
 
 slavery within the limits of their home Gov- 
 ernments — our own and one in South America. 
 Some others permit it in their colonies, but 
 not at their home Government. A century or 
 hO since, all tolerated slavery in some form. 
 But during the last hundred years Christianity 
 has achieved great triumphs. Liberty of con- 
 science is now tolerated in a wonderful degree 
 by nearly all the great nations. The Christian 
 religion has been carried into every quarter of 
 the globe. There are now between two and 
 three hundred million Christians in the world. 
 Nearly one-third of the inhabitants of the earth 
 are Christians, and they control all the enlight- 
 ened nations. It is impossible that tlie-:e prin- 
 ciples should be inculcated without producing 
 their legitimate fruits — the amelioration of the 
 human family. The man who has '" fallen 
 among thieves" attracts the sympathy of the 
 Christian world. God intended that it should 
 be so. He intended that those who aro sick 
 and in prison should be visited by the hand of 
 mercy ; He intended that the naked should be 
 clothed, that the hungry should be fed, that the 
 widow and the orphan should be sheltered, 
 that the weak should be protected, that the 
 oppressed should go free. These purposes of 
 Providence have culminated in a system of 
 free schools embracing the poor in nearly every 
 enlightened nation; in the improvement of 
 prisons and prison discipline ; in the libera- 
 tion of slaves ; in the enfranchisement of serfs ; 
 in the construction of asylums for the insane ; 
 in the education of the deaf and dumb, and 
 blind, and of idiots ; and in the erection and 
 support of hospitals and retreats for the afflicted 
 with e.ery species of loathsome disease. The 
 people of the United States have kept pace 
 with the other Christian nations in every be- 
 nevolent work except remembering our bond- 
 men as if we were in bonds with them, and 
 doing unto them as we would that they should 
 do unto us, had our relative conditions been 
 reversed. When reproached by other nations 
 for acting the laggard, we have arrayed many 
 excuses, but have had one substantial reason, 
 as a nation, for declining to terminate this sys- 
 tem within our limits. 
 
 It has been maintained by all our jurists that 
 within the limits of any State of the Union the 
 national Congress has no constitutional author- 
 ity to interfere in the regulation of the institu- 
 tions that relate exclusively to the internal pol- 
 icy of its people ; that the national Government 
 may do whatever is necessary for our external 
 defence, incernal peace, and for the promotion 
 of the general welfare; but that the people of 
 each State must be permitted to be the exclu- 
 sive judge of the propriety of its own local laws, 
 applicable to its own people alone ; that on all 
 these subjects this Government should not in- 
 terfere, should not impose its opinions, nor 
 suffer itself to be used as an instrument in the 
 hand of the people of any other State or States 
 
6 
 
 for imposing their opinions and views on the 
 people of any other State. Nobody has enter- 
 tained that opinion more honestly than I have, 
 nor has anybody been more anxious to carry it 
 out in practice ; having, during my short pub- 
 lic c:ireer. ever maintained this doctrine, both 
 iu public and private, as well as by my votes in 
 the Senate. 
 
 But, in my judgment, this disability has been 
 removed, and this brings me to consider the 
 further suggestion of the Senator from Penn- 
 sylvania, and urged by other Senators. They 
 maintained that all the States that have been 
 in this Union are still in the Union ; that, theo- 
 retically, the Union has not been dissolved ; 
 that a State once existing as a member of this 
 Union cannot, by any act of its own people, be 
 annihilated and cease to be a member of the 
 Union ; that once a State always a State, or, as 
 others have expressed it, " the king never dies ; 
 the prince is always in existence." Well, sir, 
 I have anticipated iu part the answer to this 
 theory. The argument is superficial. It is 
 the common-law doctrine, applicable to rights 
 of persons and property in a State, that lias not 
 died and cannot die. Titles acquired under 
 cue prince are not destroyed by the existence 
 of au interregnum ; the title does not terminate 
 on account of the death of the grantor, but 
 must be construed to be a grant from his suc- 
 cessor, and this perpetuity of title is not to be 
 termiuated even during the period when there 
 is no prince. So far as the holder of the fran- 
 chise of the grantee under the prince is con- 
 cerned, the prince connot die; that is, the 
 grant continues, the franchise is still good, the 
 title valid, though the king be dead. 
 
 To those who argue that a State cannot cease 
 to exist, I inquire where is Poland? Is it still 
 a State ? Where is Sparta and the other States 
 of Greece? Where is Carthage? Where is 
 Pk^me — that Rome over which the consuls pre- 
 sided and the Cajsars ruled ? Where is Egypt — 
 that Egypt which was the nursery of learning 
 and the arts before the foundations of the pyra- 
 mids were laid ? Where is Judea, once a State 
 so brilliant and powerful under the reign of 
 King David? Where is Scotland, once the ri 
 val of England, whose death has become im 
 mortal in the fame of her warrior clans led by 
 her Brticts? But why pursue this subject? An 
 absurdity 'needs no refutation. To state it is to 
 expose it. It is futile to argue that the tyrants 
 who destroyed Poland, as the wolf and the 
 jaokall desmember their prey taken in a com- 
 mon chase, had no right to do so : the conclu- 
 sive fact still exists — Polaud was destroyed. 
 She has ceased to exist as a State ! She no 
 longer has a place among the nations ! If Sparta 
 and Judea and Scotland and Poland ceased to 
 exist as States, so may South Carolina and 
 Georgia and Florida and any other State. If 
 Scotland died by the hand of England, South 
 Carolina may commit suicide! The possibility 
 
 of terminating the life of a State is a question of 
 controversy, and not the manner of the death. 
 
 If a State government may be destroyed by 
 the people residing within its own boundaries, 
 we inquire in the next place if some of the 
 States of this Union have not been destroyed. 
 If these States have not, in contemplation of 
 law and the Constitution, ceased to exist, they 
 are still States ; and if States, they are either in 
 the Union or out of the Union as States. 
 
 Now, what is a State ? It is not, I appre- 
 hend, the land on which a people may happen 
 to live ; nor is it the people that may happen 
 to. live on the land. It is such a legal organi- 
 zation of the people in one compact community 
 as will enable it to protect the rights of each 
 and all against all intruders, usually denomi- 
 nated a government, with such otBcers as will 
 enable it to enact laws and administer justice, 
 and hold intercourse with other States or na- 
 tions. I inquire if, in South Carolina, there 
 now exists such a State ? If so, is it in the 
 Union? If it is a State still in the Union, 
 where is its Governor, where is its Legislature, 
 where is its judiciary? If you recognise it as 
 a State, you must recognise the organs through 
 which the people act. You cannot claim that 
 it is a State because the land is there on which 
 the people live, nor merely because there are 
 people living on the land ; but it must be be- 
 cause there is such a political or civil organiza- 
 tion of that people as enables you to recognise 
 their existence through their officers — execu- 
 tive, legislative, and judicial. 
 
 If you admit that such a State exists within 
 the limits of South Carolina, I humbly submit 
 that it is out of the Union. There is no Gov- 
 ernor there whom you can recognise as a 
 Governor ; there is no Legislature there that 
 you can appeal to as a Legislature; there are 
 no judges there before whom your people can 
 claim a trial of their rights, and whose adjudi- 
 cations you can recognise as valid. 
 
 If a people exist there without ^n Execu- 
 tive, without a Legislature, and without a judi- 
 ciary system which you can recognise, is it a 
 State ? I maintain that it is not a State ; and 
 I think I am sustained in this conclusion by the 
 language of the Constitution itself. It says : 
 
 "Tho Senators anrl Representatives before mentioned, 
 and the members of the several State Legislatures, and all 
 executive and judicial offlcors, both of the Uuiled States 
 and of the several States, shall bo bound by oath or alBrm- 
 ation to support this Constitution ; and tho judges in every 
 State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution 
 or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding." 
 
 Now, sir, I submit that there is no such 
 Governor ; that there are no such judges in any 
 one of the rebel States'; that their State organ- 
 ization has ceased to exist; it has been oblite- 
 rated by their own wicked people. You can 
 no longer recognise the people within those 
 boundaries as a State. You have no means of 
 reaching them through any State organization; 
 and if there is no civil organization through 
 
which you caa reach them as the people of a 
 State, the State has ceased to exist. 
 
 I submit, in the next place, that the Pres- 
 ident, in adrainiaterino^ the laws in these rebel 
 districts, has asmmed that no State govern- 
 ments exists. If Tennessee and North Caro- 
 lina are still States of the Union, what right 
 had your President to app)iQt Governors for 
 their people? If these rebel districts are still 
 States of the Union, what constitutional riofht 
 has the President to proceed to suppress an 
 insurrection ualess requested to do so by the 
 Legislatures thereof, or, during their recess, 
 by the Governors? Again, if these districts are 
 still States of the Uaion, what right has the Pres- 
 ident to commisjioa the oihcers of their militia 
 called into the service of the United State?, the 
 Constitution expressly reserving the right to 
 appoint the officers to the States respectively 
 from which they are ca led ? His not the Pres 
 ident treated the people of these rebel districts 
 in all these respects precisely as if they were 
 Territories of the United States ? Is it possi- 
 ble for him to administer the laws of the United 
 States within their limits in any other manner? 
 
 It is therefore manifest that you are com- 
 pelled, in your oiEcial action, to hold and gov- 
 ern them as organized Territories, or to ac- 
 knowledge their independence. In what, then, 
 does any one of these rebel States differ from 
 Nebraska, or any other Territory of the Union ? 
 In nothing whatever except the naked pretence 
 that a State government once existing can never 
 cease to exist, in violation of the historical fact 
 that they have ceased, and do cease to exist, 
 either through the madness of their own peo- 
 ple, or in consequence of the superior strength 
 of their enemies. Your President has elected 
 to consider the State governments within these 
 old State boundaries extinct. For all practical 
 purposes they are dead. All the State laws lie 
 as a dead letter on the statute-books, unless 
 you choose to revive them. But if you have 
 power to revive them and give them vitality, 
 you may enact other laws as you would enact 
 laws for any other Territory. The people are 
 citizens of the United States ; they have a right 
 to claim the protection of the laws of the Uui- 
 ted States ; and your President, with your sanc- 
 tion, is proceeding to organize provisional local 
 governments within the limits of those States 
 as rapidly as they are overrun by your armies. 
 It is true that he expects, and we expect, that 
 when this rebellion shall have been suppressed, 
 these people will reorganize their State govern- 
 ments, and become members of the Union. 
 But while this practical death continu=>s. Con- 
 gress and the President are responsible for the 
 character of their civil governments and their 
 local institutions, as iu any other Territory of 
 the United States. 
 
 In ray opinion you have not only the right 
 to govern the people of these rebel States as 
 Territories, but it is your duty to do so; and, 
 
 moreover, that you can never suppress the re • 
 'lellion in any other manner. Civilized people 
 cannot live with each other in large numbers 
 without a civil government. Property mmtbe 
 bought and sold, wills must be made, deaths 
 will occur, estates must be administered, mar- 
 riages must be solemnized, debts must be col- 
 lected, and criminals must be punished. If 
 you do not furnish them the necessary legal 
 means for the transaction of all this business, 
 even loyal men must adopt the rebel govern- 
 ment. Every civiliz^.d community soon learns 
 that a bad government is better than none ; 
 hence they will submit to an illeg:itimate prince 
 to avoid anarchy. 
 
 But if you have the right, and it is your duty 
 to organize temporary governments for these 
 districts as you do for other Territories, you 
 have the right to extend to them all general 
 laws enacted for the people of the Territories. 
 V^ou have the same discretion in the one case 
 that you have in the other. As to these rebel 
 States, yoa are no longer restrained by the 
 Constitution from liberating the slaves if the 
 interests of the country and the perpetuity of 
 the Union require it. That they will be liber- 
 ated before the war is concluded, I have not 
 the slightest doubt; and I may as well state 
 that this conviction is derived in part from what 
 is known to be the will and wish and prayerful 
 expectation of the slaves themselves. I think 
 one of the most conclusive evidences of the im- 
 mortality of the human soul is the existence 
 throughout the whole human family of a desire 
 for immortality ; and I believe it is the opin- 
 ion of theologians who have written on this 
 subject, that an all-wise B^ing of infinite mercy 
 and wisdom and omnipotent power would not 
 implant in the mind of all people of all ages a 
 I longing, thirsting desire to live forever, and in- 
 tend to thwart that wish. He could not be a 
 
 ■ good Being and implant that desire, and at the 
 I same time intend to thwrj.rt it. It is iuconsist- 
 
 ■ ent with all the ideas we have of His perfection. 
 i Well, sir, we know that these people — and there 
 i are four millions of them — have been anxiously 
 i looking forward to the time when they sliall be 
 
 liberated. They have been praying for it, and 
 I they now hail your troops as they enter the 
 ! rebel States as the messengers of th^^ir libera- 
 i tion, and it is only by thrusting them from your 
 I ranks at the point of the bayonet that you can 
 prevent them from uniting with you to suppress 
 j the enemies of the country. I do not believe 
 j that the Almighty Br;ing who rules the world, 
 j a Being of infinite wisdom and goodness, will 
 j thwart the wish of this great multitude of His 
 children. Their ancestors were brought here 
 j in a very degraded condition. By their asso- 
 ciations with civilizid communities they have 
 been greatly improved. They have attained 
 that condition iu the scale of existence which 
 requires a change in their relations. I have 
 no doubt the time has arrived when the Al- 
 
mighty intends that they shall be free, and men 
 read events very blindly, as blindly as did the 
 Pharaohs of Egypt, who can look at this great 
 subject in any other light. You may delay the 
 fulhlment of this purpose of Providence unt'l 
 all the plagues that visited Egypt have been 
 poured out on this nation and until the blood 
 of the tirst born of the entire nation has com- 
 minglr-d with the waters of your rivers, before 
 you yield to tliis intimation of infinite wisdom ; 
 but in the end it will be accomplished; if not 
 with your concurrence, it will be by the inter- 
 vention of other nations. 
 
 My reasons for this I will state as briefly as 
 I can. First, we have not and never have had 
 the hearty friendship of any monarchy on earth. 
 Our Government was organized on principles 
 in direct conflict with their theory of civil so- 
 ciety. They have always maintained that the 
 masses of the people are incapable of self-gov- 
 ernment, and if now ours should be destroyed, 
 it would afford overwhelmintj practical proof 
 of the utter futility of all efforts to support a 
 republic. Despots will point with a sneer to 
 the failure of "the great Republic across the 
 Atlantic," as the last fearful example of the 
 folly of mankind in this respect. They have, 
 therefore, a great stake in this issue. If by any 
 act of theirs, or by any influence they are able 
 to bring to bear, not dangerous in its ultimate 
 consequences to their own existence, they can 
 secure the permanent dissolution of the 
 Union, and in the end the division of the 
 residue into many fragments, to be tram- 
 pled under foot or spit upon at the caprice of 
 the great Powers, they will have furnished a 
 demonstration of man's incapacity for self-gov- 
 ernment that all the lovers of freedom in the 
 world will not be able to refute. Who, then, 
 can doubt their disposition to aid the rebellion? 
 
 But they cannot intervene without a pretext 
 that will meet the approval of the moral sense 
 of mankind. No merely material interest will 
 justify their intervention in favor of a rebellion 
 against an established Government, The ex- 
 ample might be contagious. It is not the in- 
 terest of crowned heads to sanction insurrec 
 tions. The scarcity of cotton will never induce 
 England or France to intervene. The support 
 of their operatives directly from their public 
 treasuries until a supply can be secured from 
 other quarters would cost them much less than 
 the cost of a war with the United States for a sin- 
 gle month. To interpose an armed mediation 
 would be equivalent to adeclaration of war which 
 they cannot afford to make for cotton. They will 
 not, therefore, at the beginning, probably, pro 
 pose a direct armed intervention in favor of the 
 rebels. When intervention comes, if it ever 
 should come, it will be a moral intervention. 
 They will advise us to agree to a dissolution ; 
 they will advise us that the material interests , 
 of both parts of the country and the welfare of 
 the human family require it. If we persist in 
 
 our purposes, as we shall, they may induce the 
 rebels to adopt an act of emancipation on con- 
 dition of recognition. They can then exhibit 
 us to the world as the persistent prosecutors of 
 a war for dominion, and against the interests 
 of humanity. They will prove this from our 
 own State papers, written by our great Secre- 
 tary of State since this struggle commenced, in 
 which he has distinctly informed the great 
 Powers t'nat the relative condition of the peo- 
 ple in the rebellious States is to remain un- 
 changed, let this struggle terminate as it may. 
 
 Hence, in the contingency I have supposed 
 we would be placed before the democracy of 
 Europe clearly in the wrong, fighting for do- 
 minion and the perpetuity of slavery. With 
 the sympathies of the masses of Europe against 
 ns, with the four million slaves probably armed 
 in support of the rebellion, with the promise of 
 freedom as the reward of their success, and 
 with the predisposition of all the crowned heads 
 to suffer republics to destroy themselves, my 
 confidence in our ultimate success would be 
 greatly diminished. We would, of course, still 
 succeed, if God continued to be on our side. 
 But in that contingency, I am not certain that 
 we could count on his blessing. If Napoleon 
 and England should interpose to create a new 
 nationality, and to liberate four million slaves, 
 they migkht claim to be intervening in the in- 
 terests of mankind, and in accordance with the 
 great ideas that control the civilization of the 
 age. Putting the intervention on this ground, 
 I am not certain that you could safely rely oa 
 the friendship of the Emperor of the Russians, 
 on whose support we have relied more strongly 
 than on any other nation. After having liberated 
 the serfs of his own empire, how could he be 
 expected to make a diversion in our favor, and 
 thus assist to rivet the shackles on our slaves ? 
 I believe we' may count on his friendship to 
 checkmate our enemies in the Old World, al- 
 ways, when we deserve it ; but could we expect 
 him, after having carried into effect this great 
 edict making citizens of many millions of his 
 own serfs, to interpose in the face of the other 
 Christian nations to enable us to perpetuate 
 slavery within our limits ? It would be unrea- 
 sonable to expect it. We should therefore an- 
 ticipate them by making it the interest of many 
 millions of the people of the rebel States to 
 assist us, and the interest of humanity that we 
 should triumph. 
 
 If we act wisely and in accordance with these 
 intimations of an overruling Providence, I do 
 not believe the combined Powers of the earth 
 can put us down or intervene between us and 
 the certain achievement of a glorious destiny; 
 hence I was gratified beyond measure with the 
 statement made by the Senator from Kentucky, 
 in his place on the floor of the Senate, a day or 
 two since, that if the perpetuation of this Union 
 required it, every slave that he owned should 
 freely go, and every* slave owned by his neigh- 
 
9 
 
 bora in Kentucky would be freely ^iven to save 
 the country. I believe that the time is now at 
 hand when these frrcat sacrifices are d«^manded, 
 when some plan for the liberation of the slaves, 
 especially in the rebel States, should be adopted, 
 and the able-bodied men incorporated into our 
 armies, if we would successfully maintain this 
 struggle for the perpetuation of our nationality. 
 As 1 conceive, the door has been thrown open 
 by the hand of God. There is no longer any 
 constitutional ditlicuUy. These State govern- 
 ments having been destroyed, the country and 
 the people still remaining under our jurisdic- 
 tion within the boundaries of the United States, 
 it is not only right, but it is our duty, to organ- 
 ize temporary civil governments and maintain 
 them until the people shall have reorganized 
 their State governments under the provisions 
 of the Constitution. If this is the correct view 
 of the subject, you may pass whatever laws, 
 within the limits of those rebel States, that 
 might be rightfully enacted for any other Terri- 
 tory under the jurisdiction of the United States, 
 and in which no State government exists, in- 
 cluding laws for the liberation of slaves, and 
 their organization for the common defence. 
 
 Hitherto good men throughout the North and 
 West have justified the continuance of slavery, 
 as the Senator from Pennsylvania did today, 
 on the plea that v/e have no power to abolish it 
 within the States ; that this toleration of sla- 
 very was a part of the original bargain when 
 the Constitution was adopted ; that you and I 
 were parties to that contract. I have faith 
 fully lived up to it until the State governments 
 within the limits of these rebel States have 
 been destroyed by the wickedness of their own 
 people, and the country reduced to the coudi 
 tion of a Territory. But now they have no 
 civil government that we can recognise unaer 
 the Consritulioii ; the people and the cauntry 
 are still within the limits and under the juris- 
 diction of the United States. I would, there- 
 fore, interpose, and give them a government as 
 I would any ot er community within our juris- 
 diction having none that can be recognised by 
 us or by other nations. I would enact for their 
 government just such laws as in my judgment 
 their interests and the interests of the nation 
 and of humanity demand. 
 
 If I read the signs of the times correctly, this 
 has be '.ome a necessity. We cannot, if we per 
 sist in our folly, thwart the ultimate purposes 
 of the Almighty. By his providetitial interpo 
 sition He has thrown open the door for the 
 liberation of a nation of bondmen ; He has re- 
 moved the constitutional impediment ; He has 
 caused their assistance to be necessary for the 
 perpetuity of the Union and the integrity of the 
 nation. If we accept of this high destiny, all 
 the nations of earth combined against us would 
 be as tlax in the flames ; but if we are not 
 equal to the demands of the age, and obsti- 
 nately refuse to follow the plain intimations of 
 
 Providence, this great work will be handed 
 over to other nations, or will be wrought out by 
 the rebels themselves, and our nation will be- 
 come permanently divided. 
 
 But if we adopt this policy. Senators inquire, 
 what shall be done with the liberated slaves? 
 I answer, muster a portion of the able-bodied 
 men into the service of the Republic, employ 
 them in your camps and fortifications as la- 
 borers, or your transports and gunboats as la- 
 borers and sailors, and, if necessary, let them 
 participate in the glories of the battle field, and 
 bear their just proportion of the burdens and 
 dangers of this great conflict. And as for the 
 residue, let them alone ; let them take care of 
 themselves hereafter, as many of them have 
 heretofore. 
 
 Senators talk of them as savages, as if they 
 had been recently caught in the jungles of 
 Africa and brought to our shores, without a 
 languatre, without knowledg-j, without civiliza- 
 tion. This was true of their ancestors, but not 
 of the present generation. A great change has 
 been wrought in their condition ; they are now 
 comparatively well civilized. There are eleven 
 thousand of these men thatyou call savages right 
 at your door, in the District of Columbia. By 
 an act of this Congress some one or two thou- 
 sand more have been set free. When that bill 
 was under discussion. I remember that the 
 Senator from Kentucky, [Mr. Davis,] and some 
 other Senators, in whose wisdom I generally 
 confide, and for whose opinions I have very 
 high respect, told us that if such a law should 
 be enacted the slaughters of St. Domingo would 
 be re-enacted ; that these black people could 
 not live in peace as freemen among a white 
 people ; that a war of races would spring up, 
 which wottld result in the destruction of the 
 one race or the other. 
 
 Has this prediction been fulfilled ? Have 
 any riots occurr'^d ? Have any murders been 
 committed by these freed men? Not one ! On 
 the passage of that law these ignorant people, 
 as you may deeat them, collected in their 
 churches and school houses where they were 
 accustomed to worship, to praise the Almighty 
 for their deliverance ; and after this manifesta- 
 tion of gratitude they all quietly returned to the 
 peaceful purstiits of life ; since which every- 
 thing has progressed as usual. These people 
 are now, as heretofore, laborers in your fields 
 and shops, and servants in your houses. No- 
 body has been damaged ; no riots have arisen ; 
 society has not been discomposed in the least, 
 notwithstanding the very extraordinary speeches 
 of the gentlemen who happened to represent 
 what are called the border States in the two 
 branches of Congress. If Senators will open 
 their eyes and look at these people, they will 
 discover that they are no longer savages, but, 
 in a comparative point of view, highly civilized. 
 They provide for their own wants, they provide 
 their own food and clothing and shelter, and for 
 
10 
 
 the education of their own children, for the sup 
 port of their own churchss and schools, and 
 bury their own dead; and during the seven 
 years of my service at the capital of the nation 
 I have never seen a negro beggar — not one. I 
 have seen white beggars ; I have seen white 
 boys and girls begging for a penny of each 
 passer by at the crossings ; I have seen stal 
 wart men and women, of almost every nation- 
 ality, begging in your streets and thorough 
 fares ; but never yet have I seen a negro beg- 
 gar in the streets of the capital of the nation. 
 
 In Baltimore, within an hour's run from this 
 capital, it is said there are about thirty-eight 
 thousand colored people. Of these about two 
 thousand two hundred are slaves. There are 
 nearly thirty-six thousand free colored people 
 living in the commercial metropolis of Mary- 
 land, and no one conversant with their condi- 
 tion will dare to assert on the floor of the Sen- 
 ate that they are either paupers or criminals. 
 There, as here, they provide for their own 
 wants; by the sweat of their ovn brow they 
 earn their own bread. They fe^d, clothe, and 
 shelter their own families, bury their own dead, 
 educate their own children, and there, as here, 
 support their own peculiar forms of religious 
 worship. With these illustrations right at your 
 door, and within an hoar's ride of the capital, 
 will any Senator stand on the floor of the Ame- 
 rican Senate, and forfeit his reputation for can- 
 dor in declaring these people to be savages ? 
 They are more highly civilizf^d than the child- 
 ren of Israel when they were led out of Egypt 
 by the hand of God, and probably fully equal 
 to them, in this respect, when they returned 
 from "Babylon. They will compare very favor- 
 ably in civilization with the masses of the 
 peasantry of P^urope, and I challenge any one 
 who is curious to the comp.arison. And yet 
 with thousands of these free colored people all 
 around us, directly before our eyes, a standing 
 gigantic demonstration of this inexcusable 
 falsehood, Senators persist in debate in calling 
 them savages, and insist that they shall not 
 be armed in the defence of our common 
 country, lest it may shock the sensibilities of 
 mankind, and stimulate the great Powers to 
 interfere and end a war that under such a pol- 
 icy must result in the indiscriminate slausrhter 
 of men, women, and children. I am amazed 
 at such speeches from the lips of American 
 Senators, whose candor ought not to be lightly 
 called in question. But is it possible that 
 these Senators do not know that every nation 
 on earth having colored inhabitants has incor- 
 porated them into its armies? On this subject 
 permit me to quote a few passages on concur- 
 rent history : 
 
 " The moiiarcliical gnvcrnmcnts of Europe und America, 
 those thai tolerate slavery, and <ho.so that do not, alike agree 
 in emploj ipR negroes armed for the public defence. Ttiey 
 find that the biinlen.s of war, and the sacrifice of life it occa- 
 sions, are too great to be borne by Ihc! white race alone. 
 They call upon the colored races therefore to share in the 
 
 burden, and to encounter, in common with the whites, the 
 risks of los.s of life. 
 
 " Thus, we find that in the Spanish colony of Cuba, with 
 a population one-half slaves and one-sixth colored, a mili- 
 tia of free blacks and mulattoes was directed by General Pe- 
 zuela (Governor General) to bo organiz -din 1854 throughout 
 (.he island, and it was put upon an equal looting witli regard 
 to privilege with the regular army. This measure was not 
 rescinded by Governor General Concha in 1855, but the 
 black and mulatto troops have been made a permanent 
 corps of the Spanish army. (Condensed in the very phra- 
 i-esof Thrasher'.s preface to his edition of Humboldt's Cuba.) 
 
 " In the Portuguese colonies on the coast of Africa, tho 
 regiments are chiefly composed of black man. At Prince's 
 Island the garrison consists of a company of regular artil- 
 lery of eigiity, au'l a regiment of black militia of ton hun- 
 dred and fifty-eight rank and file, of which the colonel is a 
 wliite man. At St. Thomas's there are two regiments of 
 black militia. In Loando, the Portuguese can, on an emer- 
 gency of war with the natives, bring into tho field twenty- 
 ilve thousand partially civilized blacks armed with muskets. 
 (From Valdez's Six Years on the West Coast of Africa. Lon- 
 don, 1861. Two vols. 8vo.) 
 
 " In the Dutch co'ony of the Gold Coast of Africa, with 
 a population of one hundred thousand, the garrison of the 
 fortress consists of two hundred soldiers, whites, mulattoes, 
 and blacks, under a Dutch colonel. 
 
 " In the capital of the French colony of Senegal, on the 
 same coast, at St. I.ouis, the defence of the place is in the 
 hands of eight hundred white and three hundred black 
 soldiers. (The preceding facts are also from Valdez ) 
 
 " In the Danish island of St. Croix, in the West Indies, for 
 more than twenty-five years past, there have been employ- 
 ed two corps of colored soldiers, in the presence of slaves. 
 (From Tuckerman's Santa Cruz ) 
 
 "In Brazil, notwithstanding its three million slaves, its 
 monarchical Government employs all colors and races in the 
 military service, either by enlistment or forcible seizure. 
 The police of tho city of Rio de Janeiro is a military organi- 
 zation, composed mostly of colored men, drilled and com- 
 manded by army officers. The navy is principally manned 
 by civilized aborigines. (Hidder; Ewbank.) 
 
 " The course purs icd by the British Government in Ja- 
 maica, Sierra Leone, and Hindostan, is so notorious as sim- 
 ply to need to be mentioned. 
 
 " In Turkey, no distinction of color or race is made ia 
 the ranks of the regidar army. 
 
 Is it probable that the English, French, Span- 
 ish, Portuguese, Brazilians, Turks, Dunes, and 
 Dutch, after reviewing their own colored regi- 
 ments in Canada, S luth America, Africa, the 
 East and the West Indies, would suffer ma- 
 terially in their sensibilities in witnessing regi- 
 tnents of colored men in South Carolina? 
 
 The Senator from Kentucky [Mr. Davis] has 
 suggested that it would be dangerous to arm 
 negroes on account of the peculiarities of their 
 character. He says that when they once ob- 
 tain the smell or taste of blood they become 
 demons, and are controlled with great difficulty. 
 But this objection cannot apply to them as 
 soldiers ; their qualities and capacity in this 
 respect have been tested by the Dutch, English, 
 and French. The question has therefore been 
 settled. I drew the inference, howev^'r, that 
 in the opinion of the Senator, arming slaves 
 would unfit them forever for the service of 
 their masters. I do not complain of him for 
 bringing this to the attention of the Senate. I 
 believe wise statesmen have entertained the 
 same opinion in every age; our ancestors were 
 equally impressed with this conviction, and 
 consequently always provided for the emanci- 
 pation of slaves who had served in our armies. 
 This principle has not been overlooked by my 
 colleague [Mr. Gkimes] in preparing the 
 pending amendments to this bill. They pro- 
 
11 
 
 vide that colored men may, at the discretion of 
 the President, enter the military and naval 
 service of their country, and that all those who 
 respond to this call shall, at the conclusion of 
 the struggle, be entitled to their freedom. This 
 is right ; no slave who has borne arms as a 
 soldier or seaman would afterwards be fit for 
 slavery. 
 
 I am reminded that one of these amend- 
 ments also provides that their wives and chil- 
 dren shall be freed. Well, Mr. President, could 
 a wiser policy be adopted or one better calcu- 
 lated to prompt them to fight with determina- 
 tion for the perpetuity of your institutions 
 than the prospect of their own liberty and the 
 liberty of their wives and of their children and 
 children's children for all time to come ? An 
 army composed of such soldiers could never be 
 conquered. 
 
 But, Mr. President, many may be liberated 
 by the provisions of this bill and necessary 
 kindred measures during the progress of the 
 war who may not be needed, and who may be 
 unfit for the public service. What shall be 
 done with them? My answer has been par- 
 tially given under another head. I will only 
 add here one other reflection. We have seen 
 that wherever free colored people are found in 
 this country they provide for themselves. They 
 do not become a burden on society. No com 
 siderable number of them become either pau- 
 pers or criminals. If they have not proved in- 
 competent to provide for themselves heretofore, 
 the presumption is that no considerable num 
 ber of them will hereafter. But if they should, 
 then interpose with legal provisions for their 
 protection as you would for the protection of 
 paupers of any other class. When other men 
 women, or children, in civilized -Society, are 
 found to be incapable of taking care of them- 
 selves, the laws require the courts of probate 
 to appoint guardians of their persons and prop- 
 erty, who are required to give bond and ap- 
 proved security for the faithful execution of the 
 guardianship. The ear of the court is ever 
 open to the complaint of the ward, whether 
 made by him in person or by " his next friend." 
 The guardian is thus bound by law and stimu- 
 lated by public opinion to execute faithfully 
 and humanely this trust. Let these same prin 
 ciples of justice apply to black paupers that 
 are applied to paupers of any other color. If 
 justice and humanity require such restraints to 
 secure the rights and interests of orphans and 
 paupers and 7ion compos of our own color and 
 race, how much more dangerous must it be to 
 place infants and paupers of anoth-^r race and 
 color under the absolute control of self appoint- 
 ed guardians without the slightest restraints o 
 law, to be worked or punished or sold or used as 
 unrestrained passion or caprice might prompt ? 
 If any of the liberated slaves should prove in- 
 capable of providing for themselves, apply the 
 same principles of justice to them that yoa now 
 
 apply to such persons of any other class, and 
 the whole difficulty will have been met and 
 overcome. In my State we have the same laws 
 for the protection and management of paupers 
 of all classes, and I believe this is done in a 
 majority of the States without causing the 
 slightest difficulty. And there is no necessity 
 for a distinction in this respect in a rebel State. 
 If large numbers of these people are destitute 
 of intelligence or capacity to provide for them- 
 selves and to protect their own interests in any 
 given locality, it creates no necessity for a new 
 rule. The application of the principles that 
 protect the few will be sulUcient to protect lar- 
 ger numbers. If, thereforo, a majority of lib- 
 erated Africans were found by experience to be 
 incomp'Jtent to provide for themselves, society 
 would not receive the sli,2htest shock. They 
 would receive the protection of guardians ap- 
 pointed by the courts, under bond with ap- 
 proved security, responsible to the tribunals of 
 justice for their conduct; and society would re- 
 ceive the advantages of their labor and service 
 afterwards as before, and the laborer would be 
 secured in the enjoyment of the proceeds of 
 his toil. 
 
 But we have seen that this allegation of in- 
 competency to provide for themselves is not 
 true. It may be partially true in limited lo- 
 calities and in certain communities, but as a 
 general proposition it is totally false. On this 
 point it might not be amiss to give the testimo- 
 ny of a rebel Senator, by whose side I sat in 
 the old Chamber for several years. I refer to 
 the rebel Robert Toombs. la private conver- 
 sation he told me repeatedly that there was no 
 practical difficulty in liberating the slaves ; he 
 said it was all a pretence ; the men who assert- 
 ed this doctrine were demagogues. He said 
 that he defended slavery because, in his judg- 
 ment, it was right; it was lor his interest and 
 the interest of his people to perpetuate it; and 
 almost every old Senator here "vill recognise 
 such a statement as characteristic of his bold- 
 ness and candor. My friend from New Hamp- 
 shire says that he told him the same thing. 
 V\'"ise statesmen and candid men, all over 
 the slave States, admit the same thing. It 
 is only from the lips of politicians — I will 
 not say demagogues, for that would be of- 
 fensive — that we hear of the impossibility of 
 preserving peace and order in a community 
 composed in part of free negroes. They talk 
 of the practical difSoulties in the way of 
 emancipation, until they have impressed socie- 
 ty with the conviction that free negroes are 
 exceedingly dangerous to civil society. When 
 examined candidly in the light of our own ex- 
 perience and that of other nations, these sup- 
 posed ditficulties vanish ; the mountain be- 
 comes at once but a molehill. While the Sen- 
 ator from New Hampshire was speaking, some 
 one handed me a note stating that the navy in 
 Brazil is composed of negroes, with the excep- 
 
12 
 
 tiou of the officers. My colleao^ue and the chair- 
 man of the Committee on Naval Affairs tell 
 me that time out of mind our own navy has 
 been supplied in part with colored seamen. 
 Hence we perceive that they niay be used with 
 impunity in our armies and navy, for the com- 
 mon defence in time of war, and that they may 
 be governed and controlled, as freemen, in 
 times of peace, without the slightest danger to 
 civil society. 
 
 Then, if there is no practical difficulty, and 
 the hand of God has thrown open their prison 
 doors, and you no longer are embarrassed by 
 coustitutioual impediments, and it is your in- 
 terest to do so, why not adopt a policy which 
 may probably result in the liberation of all the 
 slaves in the rebel States ? I admit that the 
 passage of this bill and amendments may have 
 that effect; I think it will. I think that will be 
 the practical effect of the policy proposed. The 
 bill provides for the liberation of all those that 
 shall have been employed in the armed service 
 of the United States, with their wives and chil- 
 dren ; and I do not doubt that it will lay the 
 foundation for the liberation, sooner or later, of 
 the mass of the colored populat on of the rebel 
 districts, and ultimately of the whole country. 
 This does not alarm me. A careful examiua 
 tion of the whole suliject, including a candid 
 analysis of the arguments of objectors, my own 
 observation, and the observations of others of 
 the highest intelligence, illustrated by the his- 
 tory and experience of other nations, convinces 
 me that this policy will not involve us in the 
 slightest danger. I know other Senators have 
 expressed great fear. But I do not think they 
 have examined the subject with sufficient care. 
 The Senator from Kentucky [Mr. Davis] has 
 been very earnest in urging the greatest for- 
 bearance. It is manifest to all acquainted with 
 his candor that be entertains the most serious 
 apprehensions. He has repeatedly cautioned 
 the Senate against a policy that he evidently 
 fears might cause a repetition of the bloody 
 scenes of St. Domingo. But a careful exami 
 nation of that case will prove that it is always 
 more dangerous to do v/roug than to act justly. 
 It is hardly necessary for me to inform the 
 Senator that the French Deputies had provided 
 by law for the freedom of all the slaves on the 
 island; but their masters resisted the decree, 
 and attempted by force to continue their bond 
 age contrary to law. Smarting under this fla- 
 grant injustice, the slaves undertook the vindi- 
 cation of their own rights under the laws of 
 France; and in their redress of this gvievance 
 they did commit some acts of barbarity. They 
 did it, however, in defence of their legal rights. 
 By law they were free. Their masters attempted 
 the folly of continuing their bondage in viola- 
 tion of^law, and they suffered a fearful penalty. 
 But, sir, were these negroes singular in this? 
 Did they not in this act very much like white 
 people? You, sir, would have acted substan- 
 
 tially as they did ; so would the Senator from 
 Kentucky himself. All men love liberty. Sla- 
 very is sufBeiently galling when sanctioned by 
 the law of the land ; but should you attempt to 
 impose on any one chains contrary to law, 
 could you expect him to submit to the outrage ? 
 You would not, Mr. President; nor would I; 
 nor would the Senator from Kentucky. Under 
 these circumstances very few would have hesi- 
 tated to strike for their liberty. Had it been 
 done by white men it would have received the 
 praise of mankind. It was this persistence in 
 a gigantic wrong by the slaveholders, in viola- 
 tion of the law of the land, that drenched St. 
 Domingo in blood. 
 
 But admitting that there is no practical dif- 
 ficulty, I am aware that Senators and others fre- 
 quently suggest that this policy would inaugu- 
 rate a condition of society which white peo- 
 ple would not tolerate. They inquire, " what 
 will you do with the blacks eveu if they should 
 prove to be competent to provide for their own 
 support? Will you put them on a platform of 
 equality with the white people; will you make 
 this mass of negroes throughout the whole 
 country equal with your own sons and daugh- 
 ters ? Are you in favor of the equality of the 
 races?" When I have heard such suggestions 
 from the stump during the excitement of polit- 
 ical campaigns, I have sometimes answered in 
 terms of ridicule ; but that does not become 
 this presence, and I shall, therefore, for once, 
 treat the interrogatories with a careful and 
 candid analysis. 
 
 Then what is meant by the phrase " equality 
 of negroes with white men ?" Do Senators 
 mean physical equality ; that the liberation of 
 a negro slave would necessarily make him 
 physically equal to the white man ? The in- 
 quiry alone in this aualytijal form renders it 
 ridiculous. I apprehend that his skin would 
 still be black ; that his lips would be thick ; 
 that his heel would be long ; that his foot would 
 be flat ; that his skull would be thick ; and that 
 he would be less symmetrical and beautiful in 
 form than the white man, and probably less 
 capable of enduriug fatigue and toil in a cli- 
 mate adapted equally to the temperament of 
 each. It is probable that the white race is ca- 
 pable of greater endurance than any other race 
 of men on earth. It is not, therefore, I con- 
 elude, the apprehension of physical equality 
 that excites this apparent alarm. 
 
 Then is it mental equality ? Do they intend 
 to inquire if, in our opinion, this would make 
 the negro equally acute in his mental percep- 
 tions with the white man ; make his memory 
 equally retentive, his powers of comparison 
 and reasoning equally reliable, or his logic 
 equally conclusive, or his will equally persist- 
 ent with that of the white man ? I apprehend 
 that nobody anticipates any such result from 
 the enactment of any law. His physical and 
 mental organization would remain afterwards, 
 
13 
 
 as before, subject to the ordinary laws of crea- 
 tion and cultivation. 
 
 Then is it moral equality to which objection 
 is made? By moral capacity I suppose is 
 meant that power of the human mind or heart 
 that recognises moral obligations as the con- 
 comitant of certain relations in life ; that is to 
 say, when I perceive that a certain human be- 
 ing is my father and another one is my child, 
 there springs up an emotion that we call moral 
 obligation to reverence the one and to provide 
 for the other. When we perceive the relations 
 that exist between members of a family, as 
 husband and wife, brother and sister, the same 
 kind of spontaneous emotion springs up, usually 
 denominated moral obligation. When we con- 
 template the relation that exists between the 
 citizen and the Government, the subject and 
 the prince, between man and man as members 
 of the human family, or between man as the 
 creature and God as the Creator, we experience 
 certain emotions, which we denominate pa- 
 triotism, loyalty, humanity, and piety, and which 
 prompt us to perform corresponding acts ; they 
 are called moral acts, because they are said to 
 spring from this feeling of moral obligation 
 Now, is it equality in these respects to which 
 Senators object? Do they object to making 
 colored men free, and to allowing them to 
 " know " their own wives, and to be able to 
 recognise their own children, lest they may ex- 
 perience moral emotions — feelings of obliga- 
 tion to provide for them and protect them on 
 a platform of equality with white men? I ap 
 preheud that it is not the kind of equality that 
 gentlemen refer to, and which they fear may 
 result in the destruction of human society. 
 
 Perhaps some one would suggest that it is 
 social equality with negroes that white men 
 loathe. Hence I now pay my respects to the 
 apprehension of evil under this head. What 
 is meant by social equality ? I suppose that the 
 social intercourse of men with each other is 
 the result of the mutual discovery on their part 
 of a congeniality resulting from common aspira- 
 tions, desires, inclinations, and tastes, and 
 which prompt them to seek common means of 
 enjoyment. Now, I inquire, if it is necessary to 
 pass a law to regulate a man's associations, 
 would you expect to be able by the enactment 
 of a law of Conarress to make any one the 
 equal or the inferior of the Senator from Ken 
 tucky as a social being, or to make any other 
 two gentlemen, without re'erence to race or 
 color, the equals of each other in a social point 
 of view? Is social Intercourse a fit subject of 
 legislation ? Do not our associations grow out 
 of and depend on other causes? Are they not 
 the inevitable result of similarity of habits, 
 tastes, dispositions, temperament, and conge- 
 niality of spirit? In a free country is it pos- 
 sible to control social intercourse by the enact 
 meut of a law ? You might have covered the 
 statute-books of Kentucky all over with laws 
 
 to the contrary, and Hon. Richard M. Johnsou 
 would have associated with a negro wench a^ 
 his wife. They were the social eqaals of each 
 other. Intellectually he was probably her su- 
 perior, but socially they were exact equals. la 
 temperament, disposition, and tastes, each 
 found the other a boon companion. This was 
 not the result of the legal abilities or disabil- 
 ities of either. He was a free man, and she, 
 [ believe, was a slave. This association did 
 not spring from her liberation ; this social 
 equality was not the result of abolitiou. It oc- 
 curred in a slave Siate, in the bosom of a slave- 
 holding community. Nor was it an isolated 
 case, as is demonstrated beyond all dispute or 
 cavil by the presence of an immense mulatto 
 population in every slaveholdiug State. 
 
 it may be objected that this illustration per- 
 tains more to the family relations than to social 
 intercourse. But I answer, it is all the more 
 conclusive on that account. The family rela- 
 tions furnish the most sacred means of social 
 intercourse ; it gives society a permanency 
 which makes its members more directly ame- 
 nable to the civil authorities. Hence, if even 
 here men follow their tastes regardless of the 
 restraints of law, how would yoci hope to con- 
 trol by legal enactments the more miscella- 
 neous social intercourse of life ? It is literally 
 Impossible. It Joes not depend on legal pro- 
 visions. 
 
 Mr. DAVIS. Will the honorable Senator 
 permit me to ask him a question? 
 
 Mr. HARLAN. Certainly. 
 
 Mr. DAVIS. I ask the honorable Senator if 
 in a good many of the Northern States the free 
 negro is not allowed to vote? 
 
 Mr. HARLAN. I will come to that in a mo- 
 ment. 
 
 Mr. DAVIS. I ask if in the State of Massa- 
 chusetts he is not allowed to practice law? 
 
 Mr. SUMNER. Certainly; a law to her honor. 
 
 Mr. DAVIS. I was addressing my question 
 to the honorable Senator from Iowa. 1 ask the 
 honorable Senator, too, whether in Massachu- 
 setts there was not a law some time ago forbid- 
 ding intermarriage betwet n the white race and 
 the negro race, and whether that law within the 
 last few years has not been repealed. Is that 
 to your honor, too? I ask the Senator if he 
 wouM consider a general matrimouial alliance 
 between the two races in Massachusetts to their 
 honor? 
 
 Mr. HARLAN. I have great respect for the 
 ■'enator fi'om Kentucky, and have had since I 
 began to notice our public men ; although he 
 may have known but little of me, being some- 
 what his junior, I have known him a long time, 
 and have contemplated his character with great 
 pleasure during his whole political career. I 
 know that the Senator does not trifle with any 
 subject, that he speaks with candor, and that 
 he propounds these qusstions with the expecta- 
 tion of a candid reply. 
 
14 
 
 [The honorable Senator here gave way tem- 
 porarily for the cousideratiou of reports from 
 committees of conference ; after which he pro- 
 ceeded.] 
 
 When I gave way I was stating that social 
 equality was the result of mutual wishes, de 
 sires, tastes, and purposes on the part of the 
 individual seeking social intercourse, and was 
 not a legitimate subject of legislation. I will 
 not pursue this further than to say that the 
 possession of wealth by some, and the destitu- 
 tion of others, rendering them unequal in ahil 
 ity to command the means of common enjoy- 
 ment, must exert a powerful influence on social 
 intercourse. With this modification, the posi 
 tion I hava taken appears to me to be impreg- 
 nable. And this leads me to reply in regular 
 order to the interrogatories of the Senator from 
 Kentucky. First, whether the people of the 
 free States of different colors are inhibited by 
 the State laws from intermarriage. This ques- 
 tion might have been propounded with greater 
 propriety by me to him, as I have no doubt he 
 is familiar with the statutory provisions of the 
 various States ; but I will answer that in some 
 of the free States there is no such law. In 
 some of them such laws existed for a time and 
 were then repealed. I remember that in In- 
 diana, the State in which I was brought up, a 
 law existed fur a year or so requiring every 
 young man, on application for marriage license, 
 to make satisfactory proof, by oath or other- 
 wise, that his intended bride was not a negress ; 
 but the young men rebelled against this re- 
 quirement. They regarded it as an imputation 
 on their tastes, habits, and associations, and 
 the law was repealed. They did not deem 
 that such a presumption, as applicable to them, 
 was just ; that no officer had a right to presume 
 that they could entertain a desire to seek a ne 
 gress for a wife. I suppose the Senator is now 
 sufficiently answered on that point. If I were 
 disposed to be facetious, I would inquire of 
 him if he deemed it necessary in Kentucky, to 
 prevent the intermarriage of white people with 
 negroes, to prohibit it by a penal statute. Such 
 a law would be a standing insult to the white 
 population of his State. There may be a few 
 such intermarriages in any State, either with or 
 without the sanction of law ; and without the 
 sanction of law more of them occur in slave 
 communities than in the free States, so that an 
 application of the argument involved in his in- 
 terrogatory is directly in favor of the liberation 
 of the slave population. Have there been any 
 such marriages consummated in Washington 
 city between the white people and the slaves 
 who were liberated a few months since by a 
 law of Congress ? I think none have occurred ; 
 and the apprehension is perfectly groundless. 
 Sir, is there no other reason for the separation 
 of the black and white races, in their matrimo 
 iiial alliances, than the penalties of the crimi 
 nal law ? Has the hand of nature fixed uo 
 
 barrier to such loathsome associations? Will 
 they instinctively spring into each other's arms 
 in the absence of legal restraints ? Are the 
 charms of the negro wench so far superior to 
 those of the Caucasian maid as to enable the 
 first to outstrip the latter in a fair competition 
 for the attentions of the sterner sex ? And do 
 your young men deem themselves so far infe- 
 rior in gallantry to the sable sons of Africa as to 
 need the assistance of a criminal code to ex- 
 clude the latter when paying their devotions at 
 the shrine of female loveliness ? Are they not 
 content with the natural superiority with which' 
 nature has clothed them ? Sir, in ray State 
 we have no such law. None is needed. I 
 suppose no such law exists in the Senator's 
 own State ; if so, it is a standing disgrace to 
 the people, for it implies that their tastes lead 
 them to such associations. 
 
 The f!eiiatoi- inquired whether po'itica' cqiiahly was not 
 implied in the suggestious of the propositioa before the Sen- 
 ate and the argument that I have attempted to present. To 
 th's I reply that there is no such thing as political equality 
 iu nature. Political equality never did, and never will, 
 exist between all the members of any civil society, 
 whether of the same or of different races. It does not exist 
 hero. It docs not exist iu any ono of the States of this 
 Union. In the first place, about one half of the entire white 
 population of the whole country is disfranchised ; can exer- 
 cise no political privileges whatever; can neither vote nor 
 hold ofUce nor bear arms. I refer lo that better portion of 
 society which always commands our highest regards. And 
 perhaps their exclusion from the political arei'.a ought to be 
 considered as the result of our reverence for them, and not 
 iu the nature of a disability. Another very large propor- 
 tion of the white population are disfranchised; all those 
 under twenty-one years of age, even of the males, are en- 
 tirely excluded from the enjoyment of political privileges. 
 And all those of foreign birth who have lived iu the country 
 less than five years are entirely excluded inidcr your nat-u- 
 ralization laws. Hence you perceive there is but a small 
 fraction of the entire population of this country who are 
 politically enlranchised, and those enjoy political privileges 
 in various degrees. 
 
 I will not pursue this branch of the subject further than 
 to remark that I suppose the principle on which political 
 rights are conferred on members of any civil community is 
 a sujjposed capacity on their pan to hold, enjoy, and exer- 
 cise these privileges with safety and advautige to society 
 itself It is sujiposed to be inconsistent with the safety and 
 perpetuity of civil society that those under twenty-one 
 years of age, as a general rule, should be permitted to hold 
 the reins of Government, or to control the policy of tbe 
 State; and hence they are excluded. It is on the ground of 
 incapacitj' — not that all under that .^ge are incompetent, but 
 that a majority probably are; and the rule is made general 
 ou account of the difficulty of legislating for each individ- 
 \ial. The same may be siid ol our adopted fellow-citizens. 
 All do not require a residence of five years lo qualify them 
 for the performance of the duties of American citizens. 
 Some are as intelligent when they first land ou our shores 
 as the average, at least, of the native inhabitants; but, as a 
 general rule, a residence of five years would be necessary 
 to familiarize them with our inst.tutions and laws, so as to 
 enable them to exercise discreetly and safeiy the rights of 
 citizenship. 
 
 The Indians, as a class, are excluded ou the same ground ; 
 small bands and remnants of tribes alone are included as 
 voters; and these only by special acts of Congress, when 
 their attainments and their improved position in the scale of 
 civiliz:itiou would seem to justify it. When supposed to be 
 iucouipotent to exercise these rights safely, they are uni- 
 versally excluded. So it should l)e in relation to the negro 
 population. The same principles should be applied. My 
 own State, for example, excludes the whole negro popula- 
 tion from the enjoyment ot the right of sutfrago and the 
 right to hold office, not on avcount of color, but on account 
 of supposed incapacity to exercise those rights safely for 
 themselves or others. All of them are not, but a very large 
 majority are believed to be incompetent to exercise dis- 
 creetly these high prerogatives; and as we cannot very well 
 
15 
 
 legislate in relation to each individual, all are excluded. 
 
 I undcrsUmd that several of tbe free States of the North- 
 west, Illinois and ludianaj and perhaps others, have enacted 
 similar laws. Tlioy exclude them becaii.se, in th(;ir judg- 
 ment, they are incompetent — the principle on which ail 
 other classes are excluded which are not permitted to exer- 
 cise these privileges. Their liberation rroni slavery would 
 produce no immediate cliango in their character in this re- 
 spect, and would not involve the necessity of clothing them 
 with high civil trusts. Nor could this continued disability 
 on their part be ju.stly considered a hardship; as well might 
 the laud-lubber complain that he is LOt permitted to stand 
 at the helm and guide the ship, when the safety of uU on 
 board nquires that it should be navigated by the -.nost ex- 
 perienced seaman. The welfare of the negroes themselves 
 requires that the ship of State should bo guided by experi- 
 enced hands; they have no more right to complain of this 
 cxchisiou than any other class which we have mentioned. 
 They may enjoy all the blessings of civil liberty without 
 the right to vote and hold olUou. Unnaturalized foreigners 
 are as free before us they are after their naturalization. 
 Ladies and minor children are free; they are cdizens of the 
 Republic, citizens of the various .States, and yet they do not 
 particii'alo in the enjoyment of any of these political privi 
 leges. lu the exclusion of any and all of these classes from 
 the enjoyment of political rights, the Ijt.ites act on the .same 
 principle; they are supposed to be, if they are not in fact, 
 incompetent, and the safety of the community requires thai! 
 they should be Ihus excluded until the requisite intelligence 
 shall be secured. 
 
 Then, sir, if I have answered the Senator's questions suffi- 
 ciently, I inquire what ha.s becoiue of the Uiunl of " negro 
 equality?" What has become of the sneering inquiry, 
 whether those who propose to arm the blade men, a. id at 
 the end of their military service to give them freedom, in- 
 tend to secure their equality with the white race? We hive 
 seen that the liberation of negro slaves does not imply that 
 they and the white man will thence become physically 
 wjuuL mentally equal, morally equal, socially equal, or po- 
 litically equal; but they shall be equal with the while race 
 in their right to themselves and the enjoyiuent of the pro- 
 ceeds of their own labor; they shall from that timefcjrward 
 be in a position to fulfil the conditions of the original curse 
 that man should earn his bread by tke sweat of his own 
 face; that he shall earn it for himself and those immediately 
 dependent upon him, and not be compelled to earn it for 
 Huothcr. They will be equal with while men in their right to 
 justice and tho protection of the laws; they shall have an 
 equal right to the free use of their own bodies, their own 
 intellects, their own moral affections, and the right to ap])ly 
 the procei;ds of their own labor to the promotion of their 
 own welfare and the welfare of their dependent fami- 
 lies; and if il shall be found by experience that any of them 
 are inconiprti'iit to providefor themselves and their families, 
 they will have a right to demand theapiwintment of a guar- 
 dian for their protection. No other equality is implied in 
 the Declaration of Independence, and none other is demand- 
 ed by the friends of emancipation. 
 
 Examined, then, from any point of view which suggests 
 itself to my mind, I am able to perceive no objection to the 
 result which is contemplated with so much apparent alarm 
 by Senators from Stales tolerating slavery. All declama- 
 tion and argument de.signed to demoustrato the danger of a 
 free negro population to the peace and quiet of a white 
 community is triumphantly refuted by the rajiid iucre.ise ol 
 the beaulilu! cinuinercial metropolis of Maryland in popula- 
 tion and wealth, although its streets swarm w.th free ne- 
 groe -. Sir, the condition of thirty-six thousand free negroes 
 of Baltimore is a standing daily refutaiion of their alleged 
 inabi ity to provide for themselves, and to become peacea- 
 ble members of civilized society. 
 
 This brings mo to consider, in conclusion, the censure of 
 the Senate by the Senator from I'emisylvania. He inquired, 
 why do you not I steu on these exciting subjects to the rep- 
 resentatives from the border States ; why do you not follow 
 their advice, and thus steer clear of the quicksands and 
 breakers that se. m to interrupt the progress of the ship o: 
 State? This implies that we do not meet here on terms of 
 perfect equality as members of a deliberative body, in 
 which each one can demand only a respectful hearing, and 
 then an honest judgment of his peers based on the merits 
 of the case. It implies a kind of sjperiority on the part ot 
 the Senators from slave States to require a blind acquies- 
 cence in their virws without considering their facts and 
 weighing their reasons. 
 
 Now, sir, I protest against such implication. A Senator 
 who occupies a seat on this Hoor from a slave State h;is no 
 right to demand a concurrence in his vie\vs; he has no right 
 
 to dictate the policy of the nation. All he has a right to re- 
 quire of this Senate is a respectful, candid hearing, and 
 then a caWid, honest judgment. The Senate was not org.aa- 
 ized to record edicts ; it is supposed to be a deliberative 
 body of peers. Senators are expected to listen patiently, 
 and to carefully weigh all that can be .said on all sides of 
 every great national question, and then to express, in the 
 form of laws, their solemn juilgment. It is as much the 
 duty of the Senator from Keotuoicy to follow my advice as 
 it is my duty to follow his. It may be thought, however, 
 that those who are surrounded by slavery ougbi to be bet- 
 ter judges of the ellecls of legisUtiou airecting the relation 
 of master and slave, and of t\n- legislation calculated to ad- 
 vance tlio welfare of such communities. This should be 
 admitted to be true in a qualified sense; in discussing every 
 local question they have a right to extraordinary indulgence, 
 just as every other i^enator has when questions are pending of 
 deep local interest to their immediate constituents. But, on 
 the other hand, their statements, which are in the nature of 
 evidence, must be received with inany grains of allow;ince. 
 Their testimony is not disinterested. 'Ihey have a direct, 
 certain int(;rest in the subject of controversy. Thsy are 
 therefore to be heard as a witness who testifies for himself. 
 Under the ordinary rules of judicial tribunals, they would 
 not be permitted to testify in such a case; they would bo 
 excluded from the jury-box, anil would not be permitted to 
 aljutlicale the cause. If, however, you admit their compe- 
 tence as witnesses, as jurors, and judges, by what extraor- 
 dinary rules of judicature do you claim that they shall be 
 the only witnesses who shall bo examined, the only jiu'ors 
 who shall be sworn, and the exclusive judges in their owa 
 case ? This appears to me to be the very climax of pre- 
 sumption. 
 
 Sir, these Senators, instead of coming into this delibera- 
 tive body with superior claims to consideration on the 
 subject of slavery, come under that class of disabilities 
 which should require us to weigh with extraordinary care 
 their arguments and their statements of facts ; for when 
 tried by our experience and observation of their previous 
 counsel, we are not encouraged to rely on it impiicitly in 
 the future. We have evidence that they are not infallible 
 advisers, but are men of like passions and like weaknesses 
 with ourselves. A majority of the Senators from what arc 
 caLed the border States have steadily opposed every meas- 
 ure adopted for the prosecution of this war for the suppres- 
 sion of the rebellion. Had their advice been followed, the 
 rebellion would have culminated long since in the in- 
 auguration of some one of the chief rebels as the President 
 of the Republic, and we would have come to the end of our 
 experiment of sell'-govcrnment. They have not given the 
 slightest consideration to that overwhelming conviction of 
 the public mind in the free States, that slavery is in a cer- 
 tain sense the cause of the war so needlessly commenced 
 and waged against our nationality. They have steadl'y 
 and persistenti}' opposed every measure calculated in th3 
 most remote degree to afTect its perpetuity, or to bring it 
 under the restraints of iaw. The only fair interpretation of 
 which their votes and speeches arc susceptible, with two or 
 three honorable exceptions, is that slavery is the para- 
 mount institution in this country, for the protection of 
 which the Constitution was adopted, and without which the 
 G;nslitution and Uovernmenl are worthless. 
 
 Sir, this is as we should expect, when we reflect that 
 ncui ly every Senat ^r and Ropn^sontative from the so-called 
 border States are slaveholders themselves, and represent 
 communities ruled and governed by slaveholders almost 
 exclusively. The first incident calling my attention to this 
 fact w;is the election of the one hundred members of the 
 recent constitutional convention in the State of Kentucky. 
 These delegates represented, nominally, a community com- 
 posed of many hundreds of thousands of nou-s!aveholding 
 whites, and a few thousaifd slaveholders only, and yet 
 every delegate was a slaveholder. The con slaveholding 
 iulerests weru without a represenU'itive. From my subse- 
 quent observation I am convinced that this is but an illus- 
 tration of the general ru e in slaveholding communities. 
 Slaveholders hold nearly all the offlcus of honor and trust; 
 they control society, and the local legislation of the respect- 
 ive States, as absolutely as if nou-slaveho'dcrs had no ex- 
 istence. They are completely ignored in every discussion. 
 And until a very recent period the same impetuous policy 
 controlled Congress. And even now Senators from slaves 
 holding States imperiously demai d that their suggestion- 
 shall bo blindly adopted; and when, at the close of a discus- 
 sion, they find them.selves occasionally in the minority — that 
 they have been treated only as peers, and not as superiors, 
 some of them manifest a stolid indillerence to the fate of the 
 nation by absenting themselves from the Chamber tor weeks 
 
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 in succession, and others denounce the mnjority and pre- 
 dict the most dire consequences as the Iriiils of .«ur stupid- 
 ity. Nothing has been more porgistcutly asserted than the 
 consolidation ol' the population oCiill the slave States in oppo- 
 sition to the Governniont of the United Suites if their sug- 
 gestions were not implicitly followed. And yet wo have in 
 no community realized any such result. TUe passage of 
 every law on this subject, enacted during the present Con- 
 greE.?,has in my opinion made us stronger in every bor- 
 der St;tte. 
 
 The uon-siaveholdcrs of the border States cannot have 
 failed to perceive what is patent to the world , that whatever 
 remains of secession within their hmits is fostered and 
 cherished by slaveholders. This has been true since the 
 commencement of the rebellion. Your policy and yoar 
 arras have met with a stronger resistance from those in au- 
 thority, chiefly slaveholders, than from any other class of 
 these conmmnities. The Governors of all those States re- 
 fused or declined to comply with the President's requisition 
 for troops to defend the Union. The Governor of Kentucky , 
 and a large number of those at the head of public alfairs, 
 are believed to be still untrustworthy. Tins was true in 
 Maryland. Although the Governor stood firm in his loyalty, 
 your authorities were compelled to arrest, 1 believe, a ma- 
 jority of the members of her Legislature, to prevent that 
 Slate from formally seceding from the Union, while I have 
 no doubt nine-tenths of her people are loyal to the heart ; 
 but the ruling members of society were disloyal slaveholders . 
 And this I believe to be true in every border State. Those 
 from whom you have most to fear are those who have been 
 enjoying the patronage of the State and national Govern- 
 ments for ages. The most obtuse cannot fail to perceive 
 that slaveholders originated this rebellion, and are now 
 sustaining and controlling it. How foolish, then, tor this 
 Government lO ignore another class of white people in the 
 slave States. It is my solemn conviction that their interests 
 require the terniination of slavery. It is my duty, there 
 fore, as a Senator of the United States, in legislating for the 
 nation, to consider their welfare as much as the welfare of 
 their more wealthy slaveholding neighbors. 
 
 If the measures adopted by this Congress and the one 
 now pending should diminish the power of the few who 
 have hitherto led societ}', the policy will increase the power 
 of the ma?,=es; and I have not so poor an cp pinion of those 
 who do not own slave property in the slave States, as to 
 believe them inconipetfut to comprehend their own true 
 interest. Wlien you adopt a policy here for the welfare of 
 the whole nation, and especially for th" welfare of the la- 
 boring classes, they will be no more slow to perceive their 
 true interest than tlie population in your State or mine. In 
 my opinion, therefore, the adoption of these measures will 
 give the Union increased strength in the border States. 
 
 It has been suggested, however, I beheve, by the Senator 
 from I'ennsylvaoia, during this discussion, that the enlist- 
 ment of negroes for companions in the ranks would dis- 
 courage the enlistment of white men. The amendments 
 now pending do not contemplate such an association. The 
 colored men and white men will be orgauizjd into separate 
 companies and regiments. 
 
 I do not, then, Mr. President, anticipate any bad conse- 
 quences which can legitimately flow from the passage of 
 this bill or tlio amendments proposed by n)y colleague. I 
 think the legitimate effi^ct will be to weaken slavery. I have 
 no doubt on this subject. I do not vote for this measure 
 on that account; but I will not. vote against the bill on that 
 account. I will follow the policy which has been suggested, 
 not only by my political friends in Iowa, but by my politi- 
 cal opponents. Th(! Democrats of my State urge the prose- 
 cution of this war for the supremacy of the law.s, regard- 
 less of the consequences to slavery. They look on that in- 
 stitution as in some way lyiiig.at the very foundation of the 
 rebellion, and they do not desire me to treat it with gloved 
 hands, but to adopt whatever policy, so far as my humble 
 influence will extend, may be calcidated to crush out the 
 rebellion and to secure the perpetuity of the Union, and if 
 slavery should be swept by the board they will not be 
 among the mourners at its funeral. 
 
 I would not, if I know the convictions of my own heart, 
 do an act that comes in conflict with the provisions of the 
 Constitution of the United States. I do not perceive how, 
 by any fair construction, under any known rule of interpre- 
 tationj the pas.sage of this bill can conflict with that instru- 
 ment. The Senator from Illinois, [Mr. Browning,] fi)r 
 whose judicial opinions I have a very profound respect, ex- 
 pressed the opinion, as I understood him, that the emanci- 
 pation of the black recruit as a reward for faithful service 
 in the armies of the country would conflict with the con- 
 stitutional rights of his master; that black men might be 
 
 employed in the military service, but that provision should 
 be made for their restoration to their musters at the end of 
 the war. » 
 
 Mr. BROWNING. What I said was, that in freeing the 
 slave of a rebel master, whom we receive into our service, 
 that clothed us with no power to manumit his mother, wife 
 and children, if they were the property of a loyal man. 
 That is what I said. I said nothing about an inability to 
 confer freedom upon the slaves of rebels whose services we 
 accepted. 
 
 Mr. HARLAN. I did not, I tliink, misapprehend the Sen- 
 ator, but must have been very unfortuoato in my statement 
 of my comprehension of his position. I do not, however, 
 agree with the Senator in the proposition which he has just 
 stated, that we are b lund to inquire whether tile bUck re- 
 cruit has a loyal or a disloyal master. If he is a sound, 
 healthy man, capable of perlormiug military duty, the Gov- 
 ernment is under no obligations to inquire whether he has 
 or has not a master, or whether the master is loyal or a 
 rebel. AVhenever it becomes necessary for the defence of 
 the Governroent, you have a right to coerce the service of 
 every able-bodied inhabitant, without reference to his color 
 or position in society. As I have asked on this floor before, 
 what better is a negro than a white boy? Your son or 
 mine may be taken as a volunteer or as a conscript before 
 he is twenty one years of age, and while he owes his parent 
 the whole of his service. The Gnvernment does mH uiquire 
 whether the father is loyal or disloyal ; the only question 
 propounded is, is the boy capable of performing the service 
 the Government needs'? If they find him physically anil 
 mentally competent, they enroll him and place him in the 
 ranks, as I apprehend we have a right to do in relation to 
 black men, without inquiring whether they are slaves or 
 freemen, whether their masters are loyal or disloyal ; and 
 if we ascertain that any of thetvi are slaves, and if in our 
 opinion they would become, on account of such a provision, 
 more valuable as soldiers or as laborers, we may offer them 
 the r freedom, and provide also for the freedom of their 
 faniihes. I will not enter into an examination of the ques- 
 tion whether the loyal owner may not demand and receive 
 just compensation for the services of such slaves from the 
 Government. An investigation of that question is not per- 
 tinent to the issue joined. We propose to enlist those col- 
 ored men, and put them in the trenches to dig ditches and 
 to erect fortitlcatious, and when found necessary, and when 
 the parties are found competent, to arm them in the defence 
 of the country. 
 
 They are, then, if wo act wisely, to be taken wherever 
 they can be found, wherever their services are needed, 
 without any inquiry as to the loyalty or disloyalty of those 
 who claim to be their owners. No slave-owner can have a 
 stronger or higher claim to the services of his negro slave 
 than I have to the services of my minor sou. You disre- 
 gard my claim ; you enlist him in the service without con- 
 sulting me, and without inquiry into my loyally or disloy- 
 alty. The relation of master au<l slave is surely no more 
 sacred than that of parent and child. If yon may coerce 
 the service of the child, why not of the slave? But if you 
 have the constitutional right to do so, has it not become a 
 solemn duty, so as to relieve, our white troops, now so much 
 prostrated by the hard labor and fatigue of camp lifj, in a 
 chmate to which they have not been accustomed ? These 
 troops are among our very best and most patriotic citizens. 
 They are intelligent men. They know perfectly that the 
 decimation of their ranks b}' hard labor and toil in the 
 ditches was unnecessary. They know that they have en- 
 dured all tills useless toil on account of the blind infatuation 
 of their commanding generals, in excluding from tlieir lines 
 healthy men, acclimated, capable of perlormiug all this 
 drudger.v and toil, without serious danger to themselves. 
 It ajijjears to them and to me as if those generals had a 
 iiighor regard for the welfare of negroes and their rebel 
 masters than for their own troops and their loyal families at 
 home. This bill aiid pending amendnunits are proposed to 
 secure a change of policy on this subject. I would bo an 
 unfaithful representative of the brave volunteers serving in 
 our armies if I failed to give it my earnest support. They 
 need the assistance of these contrabands to preserve their 
 own health and to save their lives, now itnperilo 1 to secure 
 tlie supremacy of the laws. And they demand that wo 
 shall preserve the Union, and let slavery take care of itself, 
 if it c v.i. I;' it should perish during the struggle for nation- 
 ally, m the opinion of a large majority of them it will be a 
 blessing to the country, and tend to promote the welfare of 
 the human race. 
 
 SCAlDrSU. & CO., PRINTEISS. 
 
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