n the elective
franchise to the white man who is debased and ignorant. I regret it,
because I think that intelligence ought always, either as to the black
or the white man, to be made a test of suffrage. And I glory in the
principles that have been established by Massachusetts, which
prescribes, not that a man should have money in his purse, but that he
should have in his head a cultivated brain, the ability to read the
Constitution of his country, and intelligence to understand his rights
as a citizen.

"I have never been one of those who believed that the black man had
'no rights that the white man was bound to respect.' I believe that
the black man in this country is entitled to citizenship, and, by
virtue of that citizenship, is entitled to protection, to the full
power of this Government, wherever he may be found on the face of
God's earth; that he has a right to demand that the shield of this
Government shall be held over him, and that its powers shall be
exerted on his behalf to the same extent as if he were the proudest
grandee of the land. But, sir, citizenship is one thing, and the right
of suffrage is another and a different thing; and in circumstances
such as exist around us, I am unwilling that general, universal,
unrestricted suffrage should be granted to the black men of this
District, as is proposed by the bill under consideration.

"This whole subject is within the power of Congress, and if we grant
restricted privilege to-day, we can extend the exercise of that
privilege to-morrow. Public sentiment on this, as on a great many
subjects, is a matter of slow growth and development. That is the
history of the world. Development upon all great subjects is slow. The
development of the globe itself has required countless ages before it
was prepared for the introduction of man upon it. And take the
progress of the human race through the historic age--kingdoms and
empires, systems of social polity, systems of religion, systems of
science, have been of no rapid growth, but long centuries intervened
between their origin and their overthrow.

"The Creator placed man on earth, not for the perfection of the
individual, but the race; and therefore he locked up the mysteries of
his power in the bosom of the earth and in the depths of the heavens,
rendering them invisible to mankind. He made man study those secrets,
those mysteries, in order that his genius might be cultivated, his
views enlarged, his intellect mat