e for their liberties against the
combined armies of the republic and the armies of treason!"

Mr. Chanler.--"My honorable friend from Ohio may have made a good
point against General McClellan, but he has made none against me. I
admit that they have made successful insurrections, but my argument
was not to the effect that the negro race was not capable of the
bloodiest deeds. I avoided entering into that question. I asserted
that they had made successful insurrection; that they had held the
white race under their heel in Hayti and St. Domingo. I would only
say, with regard to this question of race, that I assert there is no
record of the black race having proved its capacity for
self-government as a race; that they have never struck a blow for
freedom, and maintained their freedom and independence as individuals
when free. I appeal to history, and to the gentleman from Ohio [Mr.
Bingham], and I speak as a student of history, and the representative
of a race whose proudest boast is that their capacity for
self-government is the only charter of their liberty. I assail no
race; I assail no man. I have taken the greatest pains to prove that
the inalienable rights of the black man are as sacred to me as those
inalienable rights I have received from my God. If the gentleman
misunderstood me, I hope he will accept this explanation. If I have
not met his question, I will now yield the floor to him to continue."

Mr. Bingham.--"And I continue thus far, that the gentleman's speech
certainly has relation to the rights of the black man within the
Republic of the United States. What he may say of their history
outside of the jurisdiction of this country, it is not very important
for me to take notice of. But inasmuch as the gentleman has seen fit,
in his response to what I said, to refer to the testimony of history,
I will bear witness now, by the authority of history, that this very
race of which he speaks is the only race now existing upon this planet
that ever hewed their way out of the prison-house of chattel slavery
to the sunlight of personal liberty by their own unaided arm. So much
for that part of the gentleman's argument as relates to history."

Mr. Chanler.--"Does the gentleman allude now to what has been done in
other lands than this? I ask the question because he says he does not
like me to go outside of the jurisdiction of this country, and I
therefore ask him not to go too far into Africa."

Mr. Bingham.--"I am no