here upon the
principle of the exclusion, as he termed it, of the inferior and the
barbarian races. Mr. President, I deny that proposition as a
historical fact. There is nothing more inaccurate. No proposition
could possibly be made here or anywhere else more inaccurate than to
say that American society, either civil or political, was formed in
the interest of any race or class. Sir, the history of the country
does not bear out the statement of the honorable Senator from
Pennsylvania. Was not America said to be the land of refuge? Has it
not been, since the earliest period, held up as an asylum for the
oppressed of all nations? Hither, allow me to ask, have not all the
peoples of the nations of the earth come for an asylum and for refuge?
All the nations of the earth, and all the varieties of the races of
the nations of the earth, have gathered here. In the early settlements
of the country, the Irish, the French, the Swede, the Turk, the
Italian, the Moor, and so I might enumerate all the races, and all the
variety of races, came here; and it is a fundamental mistake to
suppose that settlement was begun here in the interests of any class,
or condition, or race, or interest. This Western Continent was looked
to as an asylum for the oppressed of all nations and of all races.
Hither all nations and all races have come. Here, sir, upon the grand
plane of republican democratic liberty, they have undertaken to work
out the great problem of man's capacity for self-government without
stint or limit."

Mr. Davis then made another speech in opposition to the bill. When the
hour for adjournment had arrived, and Mr. Johnson interrupted him with
a proposition that "the bill be passed over for to-day," Mr. Davis
said, "I am wound up, and am obliged to run down." The Senate,
however, adjourned at a late hour, and resumed the hearing of Mr.
Davis on the following day.

In alluding to Mr. Johnson's strictures on his assertion that Congress
had no power to confer the right of citizenship on "the native born
negro," Mr. Davis said: "The honorable Senator, [Mr. Johnson,] as I
said the other day, is one of the ablest lawyers, and, I believe, the
ablest living lawyer in the land. I have seen gentlemen sometimes so
much the lawyer that they had to abate some of the statesman
[laughter]; and I am not certain, I would not say it was so--I will
not arrogate to myself to say so--but sometimes a suspicion flashes
across my mind that that is pre