e obliterated by the education of the
schools. The qualities of races are perpetuated by descent, and are
the result of historical influences reaching far back into the
generations of the past. An educated negro is a negro still. The
cunning of the chisel of a Canova could not make an enduring
Corinthian column out of a block of anthracite; not because of its
color, but on account of the structure of its substance. He might
indeed, with infinite pains, give it the form, but he could not impart
to it the strength and adhesion of particles required to enable it to
brave the elements, and the temple it was made to support would soon
crumble into ruin."

Mr. Schofield, of Pennsylvania, said: "The cheapest elevator and best
moralizer for an oppressed and degraded class is to inspire them with
self-respect, with the belief in the possibility of their elevation.
Bestow the elective franchise upon the colored population of this
District, and you awaken the hope and ambition of the whole race
throughout the country. Hitherto punishment has been the only
incentive to sobriety and industry furnished these people by American
law. They were kept too low to feel disgrace, and reward was
inconsistent with the theory of 'service owed.' Let us try now the
persuasive power of wages and protection. If colored suffrage is still
considered an experiment, this District is a good place in which to
try it. The same objections do not exist here that are urged on behalf
of some of the States. No constitutional question intervenes. Here, at
least, Congress is supreme. The law can be passed, and if it is found
to be bad, a majority can repeal it. The colored race is too small in
numbers here to endanger the supremacy of the white people, but large
and loyal enough to counteract to some extent disloyal proclivities.

"Both the precept and practice of our fathers refute the allegation
that this is exclusively a white man's government. If we can not now
consent to so slight a recognition, as proposed by this bill, of the
great underlying theory of our Government, as declared and practiced
by our fathers, we are thrown back upon that new and monstrous
doctrine, that the five millions of our colored population, and their
posterity forever, have no rights that a white man is bound to
respect.

"Who pronounces this crushing sentence? The political South. And what
is this South? The Southern master and his Northern minion. Have these
people wronged th