t in Africa. I refer to what the gentleman
referred to himself. The insurrection in St. Domingo, I say, stands
without a parallel in the history of any race now living on this
earth, and I challenge the gentleman to refute that statement from
history."

Mr. Chanler.--"That is admitted."

Mr. Bingham.--"That is admitted. Then I want to know, with a fact like
that conceded, what sort of logic, what sort of force, what sort of
reason, what sort of justice is there in the remark of the gentleman
made here in a deliberative assembly touching the question of the
personal enfranchisement of the black race, when he says in the
statement here, right in the face of that fact, that they only are
entitled to their liberty who strike the blow for and maintain their
liberty? They did strike the blow in Hayti, and did maintain their
liberty there. They struck such a blow for liberty there as no other
race of men under like circumstances ever before struck, now
represented by any organized community upon this planet; and that the
gentleman conceded. And yet this sort of argument is to be adduced
here as reason why these people in the District of Columbia should not
receive the consideration of this House, and be protected in their
rights as men. If the gentleman's remark is not adduced for that
purpose, then it is altogether foreign to our inquiry. If the
gentleman can assign any other reason for the introduction of any such
argument as that, I should like to hear him."

Mr. Chanler.--"I merely wish to say, in reply to the gentleman, that I
have read history a little further back. I remember when the British
fleet and the British army held out a similar threat to the white race
of this country. The proclamation of General McClellan did keep down
the negroes; and this fact proves what I assert--that they are a race
to be kept under. No race capable of achieving its liberty by its own
efforts, would have listened for one moment to the paper threats of
all the generals in the world. The negroes listened to McClellan, and
they shrank behind the bush. They are bushmen in Africa. They are a
dependent race, unwilling--I assert it from the record of
history--unwilling to assert their independence at the risk of their
lives. By their own efforts they never have attained, and I firmly
believe they never will attain, their liberty."

Mr. Bingham replied: "I desire to say to the gentleman from New York,
when he talks of being a 'student of hi