ights from our true national
defenders.

"In the South they were our friends. In the language of an official
dispatch of Secretary Seward to Minister Adams, 'Every-where the
American general receives his most useful and reliable information
from the negro, who hails his coming as the harbinger of freedom.' Not
one, but many, of our generals have proclaimed that the negro has
gained by the bayonet the ballot. Admiral Du Pont made mention of the
negro pilot Small, who brought out the steamer Planter, mounting a
rifled and siege gun, from Charleston, as a prize to us, under the
very guns of the enemy. He brought us the first trophy from Fort
Sumter, and information more valuable than the prize.

"The celebrated charge of the negro brigade at the conflict at Port
Hudson has passed into history. The position of the colored people in
the State of Iowa reflects lasting honor on their loyalty, and our
brave white soldiers would not have me withhold the facts. In the
State there were between nine hundred and a thousand people of their
class subject to military duty. Of that number more than seven hundred
entered the army. They put to blush the patriotism of the dominant
race in all Democratic districts. Seven-tenths of a class, without the
inducement of commissions as lieutenants, captains, colonels,
commissaries, or quartermasters, braving the hate and vengeance of
rebels, rushing into the deadly imminent breach in the darkest hour of
our struggle! Where is the parallel to this? They had no flag; it was
a mockery. There was no pledge of political franchise. Does history
cite us to a country where so large a per cent. of the population went
forth for the national defense? It was not under the Caesars; and
Harold, in the defense of Britain, left behind him a larger per cent.
of the stalwart and the strong. They were more eager to maintain the
national honor than the zealots to rescue Jerusalem from the
profanation of infidels. Not Frank or Hun, nor Huguenot or Roundhead,
or mountaineer, Hungarian, or Pole, exceeded their sacrifices made
when tardily accepted. And this is the race now asking our favor.

"Mr. Speaker, it will be one of the most joyful occasions of my life
to give expression to my gratitude by voting a ballot to those who
owed us so little, yet have aided us so faithfully and well. My
conscience approves it as a humane act to the millions who for
centuries have groaned under a terrible realization that on the sid