uld starve and die if relief were not afforded; and
the Senator from Missouri tells you, 'This is all nonsense; give them
the right of suffrage, and that is all they want.' This to feed the
hungry and clothe the naked! He has voted for these bills; but if you
will only just give the right of suffrage, you do not want to take
care of any starving man, any orphan child, any destitute and feeble
person that can not take care of himself! It is the most sovereign
remedy that I have heard of since the days of Townsend's
Sarsaparilla."

Referring to the feeling manifested by Mr. Guthrie, Mr. Trumbull said:
" God forbid that I should put a degradation on the people of
Kentucky. I never thought of such a thing. I would sooner cut off my
right hand than do such a thing. What is it that so excites and
inflames the mind of the Senator from Kentucky that he talks about the
degradation that is to be put upon her, the plunder of her people, the
injustice that is to be done her inhabitants? Why, sir, a bill to help
the people of Kentucky to take care of the destitute negroes, made
free without any property whatever, without the means of support, left
to starve and to die unless somebody cares for them; and we propose in
the Congress of the United States to help to do it. Is that a
degradation? Is that an injustice? Is that the way to rob a people?"

Mr. McDougall having subsequently obtained the floor, made the remark:
"I, being a white man, say for the white men and white women that they
will take care of themselves. This bill was not made for white women
or white men, or white men and women's children."

This brought out the following statistical statement from Mr.
Trumbull: "I have before me the official report, which shows the
consolidated number of rations issued in the different districts and
States during the month of June, July, August, September, and October,
1865. In June there were issued to refugees three hundred and thirteen
thousand six hundred and twenty-seven rations, and thirty six thousand
one hundred and eighty-one to freedmen. In August, in Kentucky and
Tennessee, there were issued to refugees eighty-seven thousand one
hundred and eighty rations, and to freedmen eighty-seven thousand one
hundred and ninety-five--almost an equality."

Mr. Johnson, of Maryland remarked: "The object of the bill is a very
correct one; these people should be taken care of; and as it is
equally applicable to the whites and to the blac