less he is a citizen, which
secures to the citizen his voice in the control and management of the
Government, and prevents those not citizens from standing in the way
of the exercise of his just rights.

"This Government does not belong to any race so that it can be
divested or disposed of. The present age have no right to terminate
it. It is ours to enjoy and administer, and to transmit to posterity
unimpaired as we received it from the fathers."

Mr. Boutwell, of Massachusetts, then addressed the House: "When we
emancipated the black people, we not only relieved ourselves from the
institution of slavery, we not only conferred upon them freedom, but
we did more, we recognized their manhood, which, by the old
Constitution and the general policy and usage of the country, had
been, from the organization of the Government until the Emancipation
Proclamation, denied to all of the enslaved colored people. As a
consequence of the recognition of their manhood, certain results
follow in accordance with the principles of this Government, and they
who believe in this Government are, by necessity, forced to accept
those results as a consequence of the policy of emancipation which
they have inaugurated and for which they are responsible.

"But to say now, having given freedom to them, that they shall not
enjoy the essential rights and privileges of men, is to abandon the
principle of the proclamation of emancipation, and tacitly to admit
that the whole emancipation policy is erroneous.

"It has been suggested that it is premature to demand immediate action
upon the question of negro suffrage in the District of Columbia. I am
not personally responsible for the presence of the bill at the present
time, but I am responsible for the observation that there never has
been a day during a session of Congress since the Emancipation
Proclamation, ay, since the negroes of this District were emancipated,
when it was not the duty of the Government, which, by the
Constitution, is intrusted with exclusive jurisdiction in this
District, to confer upon the men of this District, without distinction
of race or color, the rights and privileges of men. And, therefore,
there can be nothing premature in this measure, and I can not see how
any one who supports the Emancipation Proclamation, which is a
recognition of the manhood of the whole colored people of this
country, can hesitate as to his duty; and while I make no suggestion
as to the duty of o