21 Our miserable Phariseeism likes to persuade us that, in obeying our worst passions, we are serving the designs of * Providence. I know well that questions of race are always delicate ones, and I am not astonished, Mr. President, that you should have deemed it incumbent on you to call to mind the difficulties thereof in your speech addressed to a colored regiment of the District of Columbia. These words, I fear, will be abused. What was, doubtless, in your mind only the prudence of the executive power wishing to let alone the whole question, and to reserve the competence of Congress, will become in the hands of your adversaries a veritable plan, a programme which they will take care to translate in this wise : no decision at present with respect to the negroes ; postponement of the right of suffrage ; probable recourse to expatriation. The mixture of the races is feared ! It is feared lest, in some of the Southern states, where the negroes are in the majority, they may succeed in obtaining the election to certain offices, certain judicial posts 1 Who knows even, it is exclaimed, with a dismay blended with horror, whether we shall not run the risk of seeing negroes seated in Congress ! Would to God that this might be ! It would be your most glorious victory, and the whole world would applaud with transport. But there is no reason for conceiving such hopes or such fears. You can certainly intrust the right of suffrage to a few negroes without their ceasing on this account to play a humble part among you. It is asked whether they would not amalgamate with the reSt of the nation. What is meant by this ? The intercourse between the races will always be confined within the most restricted limits ; you have for a guarantee of this the sentiments that prevail in the United States. By obtaining the right of suffrage on certain conditions, the negroes will not be introduced into the bosom of your families. I say more ; this mixture of the races is to be dreaded only in case they are kept in a degraded and almost servile position. Then only will the number of mulattoes go on increasing.
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