r which you desire to state to the
committee?

A. No, sir; I am ready to answer any question which you think proper
to put to me.

NEGRO CITIZENSHIP.

Q. How would an amendment to the Constitution be received by the
secessionists, or by the people at large, allowing the colored people,
or certain classes of them, to exercise the right of voting at
elections?

A. I think, so far as I can form an opinion, in such an event they
would object.

Q. They would object to such an amendment?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. Suppose an amendment should nevertheless be adopted, conferring on
the blacks the right of suffrage, would that, in your opinion, lead to
scenes of violence or breaches of the peace between the two races in
Virginia?

A. I think it would excite unfriendly feelings between the two races;
I cannot pretend to say to what extent it would go, but that would be
the result.

Q. Are you acquainted with the proposed amendment now pending in the
Senate of the United States?

A. No, sir, I am not; I scarcely ever read a paper. [The substance
of the proposed amendment was here explained to the witness by Mr.
Conkling.] So far as I can see, I do not think that the State of
Virginia would object to it.

Q. Would she consent, under any circumstances, to allow the
black people to vote, even if she were to gain a large number of
representatives in Congress?

A. That would depend upon her interests; if she had the right of
determining that, I do not see why she would object; if it were to her
interest to admit these people to vote, that might overrule any other
objection that she had to it.

Q. What, in your opinion, would be the practical result? Do you think
that Virginia would consent to allow the negro to vote?

A. I think that at present she would accept the smaller
representation; I do not know what the future may develop; if it
should be plain to her that these persons will vote properly and
understandingly, she might admit them to vote.

Q. (By Mr. Blow.) Do you not think it would turn a good deal, in the
cotton States, upon the value of the labor of the black people? Upon
the amount which they produce?

A. In a good many States in the South, and in a good many counties in
Virginia, if the black people were allowed to vote, it would, I think,
exclude proper representation--that is, proper, intelligent people
would not be elected, and, rather than suffer that injury, they would
not let them vote at all.

Q. D