right and who wrong can be ascertained only by
putting the two opinions to a practical test. The passage of this bill
will furnish this test, and to that end I ask for it the favorable
consideration of this house."

Mr. Boyer, of Pennsylvania, said: "The design of this bill is to
inaugurate here, upon this most conspicuous stage, the first act of
the new political drama which is intended to culminate in the complete
political equality of the races and the establishment of negro
suffrage throughout the States. Constitutional amendments with this
view have been already introduced at both ends of the Capitol. The
object of the leaders of this movement is no longer concealed; and if
there is any thing in their action to admire, it is the candor,
courage, and ability with which they press their cause. The agitation
is to go on until the question has been settled by the country, and it
may as well be met here upon the threshold. The monstrous proposition
is nothing less than the absorption into the body politic of the
nation of a colored population equal to one-sixth of all the
inhabitants of the country, as the census reports will show. Four
millions of the population so to be amalgamated have been just set
free from a servitude, the debasing influences of which have many a
time been vividly depicted in the anti-slavery speeches of the very
men who are the most prominent champions of this new political
gospel.

"The argument in favor of the American negro's right to vote must be
measured by his capacity to understand and his ability to use such
right for the promotion of the public good. And that is the very
matter in dispute. But the point does not turn simply upon the
inferiority of the negro race; for differences without inferiority may
unfit one race for political or social assimilation with another, and
render their fusion in the same government incompatible with the
general welfare. It is, as I conceive, upon these principles that we
must settle the question whether this is a white man's government.

"The negro has no history of civilization. From the earliest ages of
recorded time he has ever been a savage or a slave. He has populated
with teeming millions the vast extent of a continent, but in no
portion of it has he ever emerged from barbarism, and in no age or
country has he ever established any other stable government than a
despotism. But he is the most obedient and happy of slaves.

"Of all men, the negroe