s
will seem to them an intolerable grievance, and this is among the
excellent reasons why I am in favor of it. If neither hanging nor
exile can be extemporized for the entertainment of our domestic
rebels, let us require them at least to make their bed on negro
ballots during the remainder of their unworthy lives. Of course they
will not relish it, but that will be their own peculiar concern. Their
darling institution must be charged with all the consequences of the
war. They sowed the wind, and, if required, must reap the whirlwind.
Retribution follows wrong-doing, and this law must work out its
results. Rebels and their sympathizers, I am sure, will fare as well
under negro suffrage as they deserve, and I desire to leave them, as
far as practicable, in the hands of their colored brethren. Nor shall
I stop to inquire very critically whether the negroes are _fit_ to
vote. As between themselves and white rebels, who deserve to be hung,
they are eminently fit. I would not have them more so. Will you, Mr.
Speaker, will even my conservative and Democratic friends, be
particularly nice or fastidious in the choice of a man to vote down a
_rebel_? Shall we insist upon a perfectly finished gentleman and
scholar to vote down the traitors and white trash of this District,
who have recently signalized themselves by mobbing unoffending
negroes? Sir, almost any body, it seems to me, will answer the
purpose. I do not pretend that the colored men here, should they get
the ballot, will not sometimes abuse it. They will undoubtedly make
mistakes. In some cases they may even vote on the side of their old
masters. But I feel pretty safe in saying that even white men,
perfectly free from all _suspicion_ of negro blood, have sometimes
voted on the wrong side. Sir, I appeal to gentlemen on this floor, and
especially to my Democratic friends, to say whether they can not call
to mind instances in which white men have voted wrong? Indeed, it
rather strikes me that white voting, ignorant, depraved, party-ridden,
_Democratic_ white voting, had a good deal to do in hatching into life
the rebellion itself, and that no results of negro voting are likely
to be much worse."

After an hour occupied by Mr. Randall and Mr. Kelley, both of
Pennsylvania, in a colloquial discussion of the history and present
position of their State upon the subject of negro suffrage, Mr.
Thomas, of Maryland, addressed the House. After setting forth the
injustice the passa