35 tion of a law in the South by which no men shall be permitted to vote but those who can read and write. This law, which should be general, since otherwise it would do violence to the equality of the races, would refuse the right of suffrage to more than one white man unworthy of exercising it. As to the negroes, it would proportion their rights to their enlightenment, and, to a certain point, their personal independence. The negro aristocracy, pardon the term, would alone attain it at this moment. The race would find itself naturally represented by its intellectual leaders ; then, by virtue of their efforts, the body of negro voters would go on increasing. And, I warn you, it would increase rapidly. There are, among those negroes whom it is sought to represent to you as indifferent to whatever is not food for the body—there are among them noble aspirations, ambitious aims, if you will. Many have learned in the school of the Gospel how magnificent are the promises of God and the destinies of man. They know that they have a soul, and also an intellect. On the day that, free, they shall know besides that their complete political emancipation is the price of the acquisition of certain knowledge, you will see them flocking to the schools, which, as a necessary consequence, should be open to them everywhere in the South. Thus all things hold together in the ways of justice, as all things hold together in the ways of iniquity. In elevating the negro race, you not only prevent its brutalization, its oppression, its extermination, perchance ; you pave the way for its intellectual and moral elevation. What I have just said, Mr. President, should serve as a sufficient answer to those who say in an ironical tone that the right of suffrage has no magic virtue in itself, and that it cannot from one day to the next transform the slave into the complete citizen, and render him capable of governing the country. We do not pretend to work miracles ; we admit of a transitionperiod. We have no superstitions concerning suffrage, and provided that you emancipate the race in the South, we
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=