BARNUM BECOMES A REPUBLICAN--ILLUMINATING THE HOUSE OF A
DEMOCRAT--THE PEACE MEETING--ELECTED TO THE LEGISLATURE--WAR ON THE RAILROADS---SPEECH ON
THE AMENDMENT.
While he had always taken an active interest in politics, it
was many years before Barnum consented to run for any office. In 1852 he was strongly
urged to submit his name to the State Convention, as a candidate for the office of
Governor, and although the Democratic party (to which he then belonged) was in the
ascendancy, and the nomination was equivalent to election, he still refused.
In 1860 his political convictions were changed, and he
identified himself with the Republican party. During the exciting campaign of that year,
which resulted in Lincoln's first election to the presidency, it will be remembered that
the "Wide-Awake" associations, with their uniforms and torchlight processions,
were organized in every city, town and village throughout the North.
One day Mr. Barnum arrived home from New York and learned
that the Bridgeport "Wide Awakes?" were to parade that evening and intended to
march out to Lindencroft. Ordering two boxes of candles he prepared for an illumination of
every window in the house. Many of his neighbors, among them several Democrats, came to
Lindencroft that evening to witness the parade, and to see the illumination. His next door
neighbor, Mr. T., was a strong Democrat, and before he left home, he ordered his servants
to stay in the basement, and not show a light, thus proving by the darkness of his
premises, the firmness of his Democratic principles.
Barnum urged his friend James D. Johnson, who was not less a
joker than a Democrat, to engage the attention of Mr. and Mrs. T., and to keep their faces
turned toward Bridgeport and the approaching procession, while he and Mr. George A. Wells,
also a Democrat, ran over and illuminated Mr. T.'s. house. As the Wide-Awakes approached
and saw that the house of Mr. T. was in a blaze with light, they concluded that he had
changed his politics, and gave three rousing cheers for him. Hearing his name, he turned
and saw his house lighted from basement to attic, and uttering one single emphatic
ejaculation, he rushed for home. But he was not able to extinguish the lights before the
Wide-Awakes had gone on their way rejoicing over his apparent conversion.
When the war broke out in 1861, Barnum was too old for active
service in the field, but he sent four substitutes and contributed largely from his means
to the support of the Union.
After Bull Run, July 21st, 1861, "Peace Meetings"
began to be held in different parts of the North, and especially in Connecticut. At these
meetings it was usual to display a white flag bearing the word "Peace," above
the national flag, and to listen to speeches denunciatory of the war.
One of these meetings was held August 24, 1861, at Stepney,
ten miles north of Bridgeport, and Mr. Barnum and Elias Howe, Jr., inventor of the sewing
machine needle, agreed to attend and hear for themselves whether the speeches were loyal
or not. They communicated their intention to a number of their friends, asking them to go
also, and at least twenty accepted the invitation. It was their plan to listen quietly to
the harangues, and if they found any opposition to the government or anything calculated
to create disaffection in the community, or liable to deter enlistments,--to report the
matter to the authorities at Washington and ask that measures be taken to suppress the
gatherings.
As the carriages of these gentlemen turned into Main street
they discovered two large omnibuses filled with soldiers who were home on a furlough, and
who were going to Stepney. The lighter carriages soon outran the omnibuses, and the party
arrived at Stepney in time to see the white flag run up above the stars and stripes. They
stood quietly in the crowd, while the meeting was organized, and a preacher--Mr. Charles
Smith--was invited to open the proceedings with prayer. "The Military and Civil
History of Connecticut, during the war of 1861-65," by W. A. Croffut and John M.
Morris, thus continues the account of the meeting:
"He (Smith) had not, however, progressed far in his
supplication, when he slightly opened his eyes, and beheld, to his horror, the Bridgeport
omnibuses coming over the hill, garnished with Union banners, and vocal with loyal cheers.
This was the signal for a panic; Bull Run, on a small scale was re-enacted. The devout
Smith, and the undelivered orators, it is alleged, took refuge in a field of corn. The
procession drove straight to the pole unresisted, the hostile crowd parting to let them
pass; and a tall man--John Platt--amid some mutterings, climbed the pole, reached the
halliards, and the mongrel banners were on the ground. Some of the peace-men, rallying,
drew weapons on 'the invaders,' and a musket and a revolver were taken from them by
soldiers at the very instant of firing. Another of the defenders fired a revolver, and was
chased into the fields. Still others, waxing belligerent, were disarmed, and a number of
loaded muskets found stored in an adjacent shed were seized. The stars and stripes were
hoisted upon the pole, and wildly cheered. P. T. Barnum was then taken on the shoulders of
the boys in blue, and put on the platform, where he made a speech full of patriotism,
spiced with the humor of the occasion. Captain James E. Dunham also said a few words to
the point. * * * * 'The Star Spangled Banner' was then sung in chorus, and a series of
resolutions passed, declaring that 'loyal men are the rightful custodians of the peace of
Connecticut.' Elias Howe, Jr., chairman, made his speech, when the crowd threatened to
shoot the speakers. 'If they fire a gun, boys, burn the whole town, and I'll pay for it!'
After giving the citizens wholesome advice concerning the substituted flag, and their duty
to the government, the procession returned to Bridgeport with the white flag trailing in
the mud behind an omnibus. * * * * They were received at Bridgeport by approving crowds,
and were greeted with continuous cheers as they passed along."
In the Spring of 1865, Barnum accepted from the Republican
party a nomination to the Connecticut Legislature, from the town of Fairfield, and he did
so mainly because he wished to vote for the then proposed amendment to the Constitution,
to abolish slavery forever from the land.
He was elected, and on arriving at Hartford the night before
the session began, found the wire pullers at work, laying their plans for the election of
a Speaker of the House.
Barnum, with his usual penetration and shrewdness, saw that
the railroad interests had combined in support of one of the candidates, and seeing in
this, no promise of good to the community at large, he at once consulted with a few
friends in the Legislature, and they resolved to defeat the railroad "ring," if
possible, in caucus. Their efforts were successful and the railroad's candidate was not
elected.
Immediately after the caucus, Barnum sought the successful
nominee, Hon. E. K. Foster, of New Haven, and begged him not to appoint as chairman of the
Railroad Committee the man who had held the office for several successive years, and who
was, in fact, the great railroad factotum of the State. The speaker complied with Barnum's
request, and he soon saw how important it was to check the strong and growing monopoly;
for, as he said, the "outside pressure" to secure the appointment of the
objectionable party was terrible.
Although Barnum had not foreseen such a thing until he
reached Hartford, he soon discovered that a battle with the railroad commissioners would
be necessary, and his course was shaped accordingly. A majority of the commissioners were
mere tools in the hands of the railroad companies, and one of them was actually a hired
clerk in the office of the New York and New Haven Railroad Company. It was also shown that
the chairman of the commissioners permitted most of the accidents which occurred on that
road to be taken charge of and reported upon by their paid lobby agent.
This was so manifestly destructive to the interests of all
parties who might suffer from accidents on the road, or have any controversy with the
company, that the farmers, and the anti-monopolist element united to defeat the chairman
of the railroad commissioners, who was a candidate for re-election, and to put their own
candidate in his place.
Through Barnum's efforts a law was passed that no person in
the employ of any railroad in the State, should serve as railroad commissioner.
But the great struggle, which lasted through the entire
session, was upon the subject of railroad passenger commutations. Commodore Vanderbilt had
secured control of the Hudson River and Harlem railroads, and had increased the price of
commuters' tickets, from two hundred to four hundred per cent. Many men living on the line
of these roads, ten to fifty miles from New York, had built fine residences in the country
on the strength of cheap transit to and from the city, and were now compelled to submit to
the extortion. Commodore Vanderbilt was also a large shareholder in the New York and New
Haven road, and it seemed evident that the same practice would be introduced there Barnum
therefore enlisted as many as he could in a strong effort to strangle the outrage before
it became too strong to grapple with. Several lawyers in the Assembly promised their aid,
but before the final struggle came, all but one, in the whole body, had enlisted in favor
of the railroads.
What influence had been at work with these gentlemen was, of
course, a matter of conjecture.
Certain it is that all the railroad interests in the State
were combined; and while they had plenty of money with which to carry out their designs,
the chances were small indeed for those members of the legislature who were struggling for
simple justice, and who had no pecuniary interests at stake.
Nevertheless, every inch of ground was fought over, day after
day, before the legislative railroad committee; examinations and cross-examinations of
railroad commissioners and lobbyists were kept up. Scarcely more than one man, Senator
Ballard, of Darien, lent his personal aid to Barnum in the investigation, but together
they left not a stone unturned.
The man who was prevented from being appointed chairman
succeeded in becoming one of the railroad commissioners, but so much light was thrown on
his connection with railroad reports, railroad laws and lobbying, by the indefatigable
Barnum, the, the man took to his bed, some ten days before the close of the session, and
actually staid there "sick " until the legislature adjourned.
The amendment to the United States Constitution abolishing
slavery met with little opposition; but the proposed amendment to the State Constitution,
giving the right of suffrage to the negro, was violently opposed by the Democratic
members. The report from the minority of the committee to whom the question was referred
gave certain reasons for rejecting the contemplated amendment, and in reply to this
minority report, Barnum spoke, May 26th, 1865, as follows:--ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL
AMENDMENT.
Mr. Speaker: I will not attempt to notice at any length the
declamation of the honorable gentleman from Milford, for certainly I have heard nothing
from his lips approaching to the dignity of argument. I agree with the gentleman that the
right of suffrage is "dearly and sacredly cherished by the white man"; and it is
because this right is so dear and sacred, that I wish to see it extended to every educated
moral man within our State, without regard to color. He tells us that one race is a vessel
to honor, and another to dishonor; and that he has seen on ancient Egyptian monuments the
negro represented as "a hewer of wood and a drawer of water." This is doubtless
true, and the gentleman seems determined always to KEEP the negro a "vessel of
dishonor," and a "hewer of wood." We, on the other hand, propose to give
him the opportunity of expanding his faculties and elevating himself to true manhood. He
says he "hates and abhors, and despises demagogism." I am rejoiced to hear it,
and I trust we shall see tangible evidence of the truth of what he professes in his
abandonment of that slavery to party which is the mere trick and trap of the demagogue.
When, a few days since, this honorable body voted unanimously
for the Amendment of the United States Constitution, abolishing human slavery, I not only
thanked God from my heart of hearts, but I felt like going down on my knees to the
gentlemen of the opposition, for the wisdom they had exhibited in bowing to the logic of
events by dropping that dead weight of slavery which had disrupted the Democratic party,
with which I had been so long connected. And on this occasion I wish again to appeal to
the wisdom and loyalty of my Democratic friends. I say Democratic "friends," for
I am and ever was, a thorough, out and out Democrat. I supported General Jackson, and
voted for every Democratic president after him, up to and including Pierce; for I really
thought Pierce was a Democrat until he proved the contrary, as I conceived, in the Kansas
question. My democracy goes for the greatest good to the greatest number, for equal and
exact justice to all men, and for a submission to the will of the majority. It was the
repudiation by the Southern Democracy of this great democratic doctrine of majority rule
which opened the rebellion.
And now, Mr. Speaker, let me remind our Democratic friends
that the present question simply asks that a majority of the legal voters, the white
citizens of this State, may decide whether or not colored men of good moral character, WHO
ARE ABLE TO READ, and who possess all the qualifications of white voters, shall be
entitled to the elective franchise. The opposition may have their own ideas, or may be in
doubt upon this subject; but surely no true Democrat will dare to refuse permission to our
fellow-citizens to decide the question.
Negro slavery, and its legitimate outgrowths of ignorance,
tyranny and oppression, have caused this gigantic rebellion, which has cost our country
thousands of millions of treasure, and hundreds of thousands of human lives in defending a
principle. And where was this poor, down-trodden colored race in this rebellion? Did they
seize the "opportunity" when their masters were engaged with a powerful foe, to
break out in insurrection, and massacre those tyrants who had so long held them in the
most cruel bondage? No, Mr. Speaker, they did not do this. My "Democratic"
friends would have done it. I would have done it. Irishmen, Chinamen, Portuguese, would
have done it; any white man would have done it; but the poor black man is like a lamb in
his nature compared with the white man. The black man possesses a confiding disposition,
thoroughly tinctured with religious enthusiasm, and not characterized by a spirit of
revenge. No, the only barbarous massacres we heard of, during the war, were those
committed by their white masters on their poor, defenceless white prisoners, and to the
eternal disgrace of southern white "Democratic" rebels, be it said, these
instances of barbarism were numerous all through the war. When this rebellion first broke
out, the northern Democracy raised a hue-and-cry against permitting the negroes to fight;
but when such a measure seemed necessary, in order to put down traitors, these colored men
took their muskets in hand and made their bodies a wall of defence for the loyal citizens
of the North. And now, when our grateful white citizens ask from this assembly the
privilege of deciding by their votes whether these colored men, who at least, were
partially our saviours in the war, may or may not, under proper restrictions, become
participants in that great salvation, I am amazed that men calling themselves Democrats
dare refuse to grant this democratic measure. We wish to educate ignorant men, white or
black. Ignorance is incompatible with the genius of our free institutions. In the very
nature of things it jeopardizes their stability, and it is always unsafe to transgress the
laws of nature. We cannot safely shut ourselves up with ignorance and brutality; we must
educate and Christianize those who are now by circumstances our social inferiors.
Years ago, I was afraid of foreign voters. I feared that when
Europe poured her teeming millions of working people upon our shores, our extended laws of
franchise would enable them to swamp our free institutions, and reduce us to anarchy. But
much reflection has satisfied me that we have only to elevate these millions and their
descendants to the standard of American citizenship, and we shall find sufficient of the
leaven of liberty in our system of government to absorb all foreign elements and
assimilate them to a truly democratic form of government.
Mr. Speaker: We cannot afford to carry passengers and have
them live under our government with no real vital interest in its perpetuity. Every man
must be a joint owner.
The only safe inhabitants of a free country are educated
citizens who vote.
Nor in a free government can we afford to employ journeymen;
they may be apprenticed until they learn to read, and study our institutions; and then let
them become joint proprietors and feel a proportionate responsibility. The two learned and
distinguished authors of the minority report have been studying the science of ethnology
and have treated us with a dissertation on the races. And what have they attempted to
show? Why, that a race which, simply on account of the color of the skin, has long been
buried in slavery at the South, and even at the North has been tabooed and scarcely
permitted to rise above the dignity of whitewashers and boot-blacks, does not exhibit the
same polish and refinement that the white citizens do who have enjoyed the advantages of
civilization, education, Christian culture and self-respect which can only be attained by
those who share in making the laws under which they live.
Do our Democratic friends assume that the negroes are not
human? I have heard professed Democrats claim even that; but do the authors of this
minority report insist that the negro is a beast? Is his body not tenanted by an immortal
spirit? If this is the position of the gentlemen, then I confess a beast cannot reason,
and this minority committee are right in declaring that "the negro can develop no
inventive faculties or genius for the arts." For although the elephant may be taught
to plow, or the dog to carry your market-basket by his teeth, you cannot teach them to
shave notes, to speculate in gold, or even to vote; whereas, the experience of all
political parties shows that men may be taught to vote, even when they do not know what
the ticket means.
But if the colored man is indeed a man, then his manhood with
proper training can be developed. His soul may appear dormant, his brain inactive, but
there is a vitality there; and Nature will assert herself if you will give her the
opportunity.
Suppose an inhabitant of another planet should drop down upon
this portion of our globe at mid-winter. He would find the earth covered with snow and
ice, and congealed almost to the consistency of granite. The trees are leafless,
everything is cold and barren; no green thing is to be seen; the inhabitants are chilled,
and stalk about shivering, from place to place; he would exclaim, "Surely this is not
life; this means annihilation. No flesh and blood can long endure this; this frozen earth
is bound in the everlasting embraces of adamantine frost, and can never develop vegetation
for the sustenance of any living thing." He little dreams of the priceless myriads of
germs which bountiful Nature has safely garnered in the warm bosom of our mother earth; he
sees no evidence of that vitality which the beneficent sun will develop to grace and
beautify the world. But let him remain till March or April, and as the snow begins to melt
away, he discovers the beautiful crocus struggling through the half-frozen ground; the
snow-drops appear in all their chaste beauty; the buds of the swamp-maple shoot forth; the
beautiful magnolia opens her splendid blossoms; the sassafras adds its evidence of life;
the pearl-white blossoms of the dog-wood light up every forest: and while our stranger is
rubbing his eyes in astonishment, the earth is covered with her emerald velvet carpet;
rich foliage and brilliant colored blossoms adorn the trees; fragrant flowers are
enwreathing every wayside; the swift-winged birds float through the air and send forth
joyous notes of gratitude from every tree-top; the merry lambs skip joyfully around their
verdant pasture-grounds; and everywhere is our stranger surrounded with life, beauty, joy
and gladness.
So it is with the poor African. You may take a dozen
specimens of both sexes from the lowest type of man found in Africa; their race has been
buried for ages in ignorance and barbarism, and you can scarcely perceive that they have
any more of manhood or womanhood than so many orang-outangs or gorillas. You look at their
low foreheads, their thick skulls and lips, their woolly heads, their flat noses, their
dull, lazy eyes, and you may he tempted to adopt the language of this minority committee,
and exclaim: Surely these people have "no inventive faculties, no genius for the
arts, or for any of those occupations requiring intellect and wisdom." But bring them
out into the light of civilization; let them and their children come into the genial
sunshine of Christianity; teach them industry, self-reliance, and self-respect; let them
learn what too few white Christians have yet understood, that cleanliness is akin to
godliness, and a part of godliness; and the human soul will begin to develop itself. Each
generation, blessed with churches and common schools will gradually exhibit the result of
such culture; the low foreheads will be raised and widened by an active and expanded
brain; the vacant eye of barbarism, ignorance and idleness will light up with the fire of
intelligence, education, ambition, activity and Christian civilization; and you will find
the immortal soul asserting her dignity, by the development of a man who would startle by
his intelligence the honorable gentleman from Wallingford, who has presumed to compare
beings made in God's image with "oxen and asses." That honorable gentleman, if
he is rightly reported in the papers (I did not have the happiness to hear his speech),
has mistaken the nature of the colored man. The honorable gentleman reminds me of the
young man who went abroad, and when he returned, there was nothing in America that could
compare with what he had seen in foreign lands. Niagara Falls was nowhere; the White
Mountains were "knocked higher than a kite" by Mont Blanc; our rivers were so
large that they were vulgar, when contrasted with the beautiful little streams and
rivulets of Europe; our New York Central Park was eclipsed by the Bois de Bologne and the
Champs Elysees of Paris, or Hyde or Regent Park of London, to say nothing of the great
Phoenix Park at Dublin.
"They have introduced a couple of Venetian gondolas on
the large pond in Central Park," remarked a friend.
"All very well," replied the verdant traveler,
"but between you and me, these birds can't stand our cold climate more than one
season." The gentleman from Wallingford evidently had as little idea of the true
nature of the African as the young swell had of the pleasure-boats of Venice.
Mr. Johnson, of Wallingford: "The gentleman
misapprehends my remarks. The gentleman from Norwich had urged that the negro should vote
because they have fought in our battles. I replied that oxen and asses can fight, and
therefore should, on the same grounds, be entitled to vote."
Mr. Barnum: I accept the gentleman's explanation. Doubtless
General Grant will feel himself highly complimented when he learns that it requires no
greater capacity to handle the musket, and meet armed battalions in the field, than
"oxen and asses" possess.
Let the educated free negro feel that he is a man; let him be
trained in New England churches, schools and workshops; let him support himself, pay his
taxes, and cast his vote, like other men, and he will put to everlasting shame the
champions of modern Democracy, by the overwhelming evidence he will give in his own person
of the great Scripture truth, that "God has made of one blood all the nations of
men." A human soul, "that God has created and Christ died for," is not to
be trifled with. It may tenant the body of a Chinaman, a Turk, an Arab or a Hottentot--it
is still an immortal spirit; and, amid all assumptions of caste, it will in due time
vindicate the great fact that, without regard to color or condition, all men are equally
children of the common Father.
A few years since, an English lord and his family were riding
in his carriage in Liverpool. It was an elegant equipage; the servants were dressed in
rich livery; the horses caparisoned in the most costly style; and everything betokened
that the establishment belonged to a scion of England's proudest aristocracy. The carriage
stopped in front of a palatial residence. At this moment a poor beggar woman rushed to the
side of the carriage, and gently seizing the lady by the hand, exclaimed, "For the
love of God give me something to save my poor sick children from starvation. You are rich;
I am your poor sister, for God is our common Father."
"Wretch!" exclaimed the proud lady, casting the
woman's hand away; "don't call me sister; I have nothing in common with such low
brutes as you." And the great lady doubtless thought she was formed of finer clay
than this suffering mendicant; but when a few days afterward she was brought to a sick bed
by the smallpox, contracted by touching the hand of that poor wretch, she felt the
evidence that they belonged to the same great family, and were subject to the same pains
and diseases.
The State of Connecticut, like New Jersey, is a border State
of New York. New York has a great commercial city, where aldermen rob by the tens of
thousands, and where principal is studied much more than principle. I can readily
understand how the negro has come to be debased at the North as well as at the South. The
interests of the two sections in the product of negro labor were nearly identical. The
North wanted Southern cotton and the South was ready in turn to buy from the North
whatever was needed in the way of Northern supplies and manufactures. This community of
commercial interests led to an identity in political principles, especially in matters
pertaining to the negro race--the working race of the South--which produced the cotton and
consumed so much of what Northern merchants and manufacturers sold for plantation use. The
Southern planters were good customers and were worth conciliating. So when Connecticut
proposed in 1818 to continue to admit colored men to the franchise, the South protested
against thus elevating the negroes, and Connecticut succumbed. No other New England State
has ever so disgraced herself; and now Connecticut Democrats are asked to permit the white
citizens of this State to express their opinion in regard to reinstating the colored man
where our Revolutionary sires placed him under the Constitution. Now, gentlemen,
"Democrats," as you call yourselves, you who speak so flippantly of your
"loyalty," your "love for the Union" and your "love for the
people"; you who are generally talking right and voting wrong, we ask you to come
forward and act "democratically," by letting your masters, the people, speak.
The word "white" in the Constitution cannot be
strictly and literally construed. The opposition express great love for white blood. Will
they let a mulatto vote half the time, a quadroon three-fourths, and an octoroon
seven-eighths of the time? If not, why not? Will they enslave seven-eighths of a white man
because one-eighth is not Caucasian? Is this democratic? Shall not the majority seven
control the minority one? Out on such "democracy."
But a Democratic minority committee (of two) seem to have
done something besides study ethnology. They have also paid great attention to fine arts,
and are particularly anxious that all voters shall have a "genius for the arts."
I would like to ask them if it has always been political practice to insist that every
voter in the great "unwashed" and "unterrified" of any party should
become a member of the Academy of Arts before he votes the "regular" ticket? I
thought he was received into the full fellowship of a political party if he could exhibit
sufficient "inventive faculties and genius for the arts," to enable him to paint
a black eye. Can a man whose "genius for the arts" enables him to strike from
the shoulder scientifically, be admitted to full fellowship in a political party? Is it
evident that the political artist has studied the old masters, if he exhibits his genius
by tapping an opponent's head with a shillelah? The oldest master in this school of art
was Cain; and so canes have been made to play their part in politics, at the polls and
even in the United States Senate Chamber.
Is "genius for the arts and those occupations requiring
intellect and wisdom" sufficiently exemplified in adroitly stuffing ballot-boxes,
forging soldiers' votes, and copying a directory, as has been done, as the return list of
votes? Is the "inventive faculty" of "voting early and often" a
passport to political brotherhood? Is it satisfactory evidence of "artistic"
genius, to head a mob? and a mob which is led and guided by political passion, as numerous
instances in our history prove, is the worst of mobs. Is it evidence of "high
art" to lynch a man by hanging him to the nearest tree or lamp-post? Is a
"whisky scrimmage" one of the lost arts restored? We all know how certain
"artists" are prone to embellish elections and to enhance the excitements of
political campaigns by inciting riots, and the frequency with which these disgraceful
outbreaks have occurred of late, especially in some of the populous cities, is cause for
just alarm. It is dangerous "art."
Mr. Speaker: I repeat that I am a friend to the Irishman. I
have traveled through his native country and have seen how he is oppressed. I have
listened to the eloquent and patriotic appeals of Daniel O'Connell, in Conciliation Hall,
in Dublin, and I have gladly contributed to his fund for ameliorating the condition of his
countrymen. I rejoice to see them rushing to this land of liberty and independence; and it
is because I am their friend that I denounce the demagogues who attempt to blind and
mislead them to vote in the interests of any party against the interests of humanity, and
the principles of true democracy. My neighbors will testify that at mid-winter I employ
Irishmen by the hundred to do work that is not absolutely necessary, in order to help them
support their families.
After hearing the minority report last week, I began to feel
that I might be disfranchised, for I have no great degree of "genius for the
arts;" I felt, therefore, that I must get "posted" on that subject as soon
as possible. I at once sauntered into the Senate Chamber to look at the paintings: there I
saw portraits of great men, and I saw two empty frames from which the pictures had been
removed. These missing paintings, I was told, were portraits of two ex-Governors of the
State, whose position on political affairs was obnoxious to the dominant party in the
Legislature; and especially obnoxious were the supposed sentiments of these governors on
the war. Therefore, the Senate voted to remove the pictures, and thus proved, as it would
seem, that there is an intimate connection between politics and art.
I have repeatedly traveled through every State in the South,
and I assert, what every intelligent officer and soldier who has resided there will
corroborate, that the slaves, as a body are more intelligent than the poor whites. No man
who has not been there can conceive to what a low depth of ignorance the poor
snuff-taking, clay-eating whites of some portions of the South have descended. I trust the
day is not far distant when the "common school" shall throw its illuminating
rays through this Egyptian pall.
I have known slave mechanics to be sold for $3,000, and even
$5,000 each, and others could not be bought at all; and I have seen intelligent slaves
acting as stewards for their masters, traveling every year to New Orleans, Nashville, and
even to Cincinnati, to dispose of their masters' crops. The tree colored citizens of
Opelousas, St. Martinsville, and all the Attakapas country in Louisiana, are as
respectable and intelligent as an ordinary community of whites. They speak the French and
English languages, educate their children in music and "the arts," and they pay
their taxes on more than fifteen millions of dollars.
Gentlemen of the opposition, I beseech you to remember that
our State and our country ask from us something more than party tactics. It is absolutely
necessary that the loyal blacks at the South should vote, in order to save the loyal
whites. Let Connecticut, without regard to party, set them an example that shall influence
the action at the South, and prevent a new form of slavery from arising there, which shall
make all our expenditure of blood and treasure fruitless.
But some persons have this color prejudice simply by the
force of education, and they say, "Well, a nigger is a nigger, and he can't be
anything else. I hate niggers, anyhow." Twenty years ago I crossed the Atlantic, and
among our passengers was an Irish judge, who was coming out to Newfoundland as chief
justice. He was an exceedingly intelligent and polished gentleman, and extremely witty.
The passengers from the New England States and those from the South got into a discussion
on the subject of slavery, which lasted three days. The Southerners were finally worsted,
and when their arguments were exhausted, they fell back on the old story, by saying:
"Oh! curse a nigger, he ain't half human anyhow; he had no business to be a nigger,
etc." One of the gentlemen then turned to the Irish judge, and asked his opinion of
the merits of the controversy. The judge replied:
"Gentlemen, I have listened with much edification to
your arguments pro and con during three days. I was quite inclined to think the
anti-slavery gentlemen had justice and right on their side, but the last argument from the
South has changed my mind. I say a 'nigger has no business to be a nigger,' and we should
kick him out of society and trample him under foot--always provided, gentlemen, you prove
he was born black at his own particular request. If he had no word to say in the matter,
of course he is blameless for his color, and is entitled to the same respect that other
men are who properly behave themselves!"
Mr. Speaker: I am no politician; I came to this legislature
simply because I wish to have the honor of voting for the two constitutional
amendments--one for driving slavery entirely out of our country; the other to allow men of
education and good moral character to vote, regardless of the color of their skins. To
give my voice for these two philanthropic, just and Christian measures is all the glory I
ask legislativewise. I care nothing whatever for any sect or party under heaven, as such.
I have no axes to grind, no logs to roll, no favors to ask. All I desire is to do what is
right, and prevent what is wrong. I believe in no "expediency" that is not
predicated of justice, for in all things--politics, as well as everything else--I know
that "honesty is the best policy." A retributive Providence will unerringly and
speedily search out all wrong-doing; hence, right is always the best in the long run.
Certainly,, in the light of the great American spirit of liberty and equal rights which is
sweeping over this country, and making the thrones of tyrants totter in the Old World, no
party can afford to carry slavery, either of body or of mind. Knock off your manacles and
let the man go free. Take down the blinds from his intellect, and let in the light of
education and Christian culture. When this is done you have developed a man. Give him the
responsibility of a man and the self-respect of a man, by granting him the right of
suffrage, Let universal education, and the universal franchise be the motto of free
America, and the toiling millions of Europe, who are watching you with such intense
interest, will hail us as their saviours. Let us loyally sink "party" on this
question, and go for "God and our Country." Let no man attach an eternal stigma
to his name by shutting his eyes to the great lesson of the hour, and voting against
permitting the people to express their opinion on this important subject. Let us
unanimously grant this truly democratic boon. Then, when our laws of franchise are settled
on a just basis, let future parties divide where they honestly differ on State or national
questions which do nor trench upon the claims of manhood or American citizenship.