hat four
millions of them can elect a President of their own race against the
wishes of thirty millions of ours? Ever since I knew any thing of the
party to which the gentleman belongs, it has entertained this same
morbid fear of negro competition; and sometimes I have thought that if
we were to contemplate the subject from their stand-point we would
have more charity than we do for this timidity and nervous dread which
haunts them. I beg leave, however, to assure the gentleman that there
is not the slightest danger of electing a black President, and that he
need never vote for one, unless he thinks him better fitted for the
office than a white man."

With more direct reference to the merits of the question, Mr. Windom
said: "Our warrant for the passage of this bill is found in the genius
and spirit of our institutions; but not in these alone. Fortunately,
the great amendment which broke the shackles from every slave in the
land contains an express provision that 'Congress shall have power to
enforce this article by appropriate legislation.'

"When this amendment was acted upon, it was well understood, as it is
now, that although the body of slavery might be destroyed, its spirit
would still live in the hearts of those who have sacrificed so much
for its preservation, and that if the freedmen were left to the tender
mercy of their former masters, to whose heartless selfishness has been
superadded a malignant desire for vengeance upon the negro for having
aided us in crushing the rebellion, his condition would be more
intolerable than it was before the war. And hence the broad grant of
power was made to enable Congress to enforce the spirit as well as the
letter of the amendment. Now, sir, in what way is it proposed to
enforce it? By denying to any one man a single right or privilege
which he could otherwise constitutionally or properly enjoy? No. By
conferring on any one person or class of persons a single right or
immunity which every other person may not possess? By no means. Does
it give to the loyal negro any preference over the recent would-be
assassins of the nation? Not at all. It merely declares that hereafter
there shall be no discrimination in civil rights or immunities among
the citizens of any State or territory of the United States on account
of race, color, or previous condition of slavery, and that every
person, except such as are excluded by reason of crime, shall have the
same right to enforce contrac