his colleague, Jere Haralson[100] of Alabama, comprised
such objects as the amendment of the revised statutes of the United
States, the relief of the Medical College of Alabama, and the payment
of war claims. During his three terms in Congress, John R. Lynch
maintained interest in a wide range of subjects. He spoke at length
on a bill "to provide and regulate the counting of votes for President
and Vice President and the decision in the disputed election of R. B.
Hayes.[101] He opposed the bill to repeal the act providing for the
pay of Congressmen,[102] but supported a measure to appropriate funds
for the establishment of a national board of health.[103]

In the Forty-fifth Congress, R. H. Cain proposed a measure to
establish a line of mail and emigrant steam and sailing vessels
between certain ports of the United States and Liberia.[104] His
colleague, Robert Smalls, was a man of wider interests.[105] Among his
various remarks, there must be noted those on the District of Columbia
liquor traffic, interstate commerce, and the army reorganization bill.
In the latter instance, he attempted to have inserted into the bill an
amendment providing for the merging of enlisted men into military
units without distinction as to race or color.

In the Senate, B. K. Bruce was afforded opportunity to debate the
issues of the day. While most active in offering bills and
resolutions, he nevertheless spoke forcefully on several matters of
greater than ordinary import. He spoke out fearlessly against the bill
restricting Chinese immigration,[106] and while discussing the Indian
bill,[107] he took high ground, showing that we had failed in our
selfish policy toward the Indian--a policy by which the breeding of
hatred and discontent had kept him a fugitive and a vagabond--and
emphasized the necessity for the government to do something to
civilize the Indian. There must be a change in the Indian policy "if
they are to be civilized," said he, "in that the best elements of
their natures are to be developed to the exercise of their best
functions, so as to produce individual character and social groups
characteristic of enlightened people; if this is to be done under our
system, its ultimate realization requires an adoption of a political
philosophy that shall make the Indians, as individuals and as a tribe,
subjects of American law and beneficiaries of American institutions,
by making them first American citizens, and clothing them as rapi