hat which is right and just. I have hopes, great hopes, of
those who were recently Confederates; and I believe that now that they
have been taught that they can not do evil, to all the extent that
they might desire, with impunity, and when their attention is turned
of necessity in the right direction, the road will seem so pleasant to
their feet, or, at any rate, will seem so agreeable to their love of
power, that they will be willing to walk in the direction that we have
pointed. If they do, what is accomplished? In process of time, under
this constitutional amendment, if it should be adopted, they are led
to enlarge their franchise. That necessarily will lead them to
consider how much further they can go, what is necessary in order to
fit their people for its exercise, thus leading to education, thus
leading to a greater degree of civilization, thus bringing up an
oppressed and downtrodden race to an equality, if capable of an
equality--and I hope it may be--with their white brethren, children of
the same Father.

"And, sir, if this is done, some of us may hope to live--I probably
may not, but the honorable Senator from Massachusetts may--to see the
time when, by their own act, and under the effect of an enlightened
study of their own interests, all men may be placed upon the same
broad constitutional level, enjoying the same rights, and seeking
happiness in the same way and under the same advantages; and that is
all that we could ask."

On the following day, the discussion was continued by Mr. Lane, of
Indiana, who addressed the Senate in a speech of two hours' duration.
Mr. Lane seldom occupied the time of the Senate by speech-making, but
when he felt it his duty to speak, none upon the floor attracted more
marked attention, both from the importance of his matter and the
impressiveness of his manner.

Much of Mr. Lane's speech, on this occasion, was devoted to the
general subject of reconstruction, since he regarded the pending
measure as one of a series looking to the ultimate restoration of the
late rebel States. He was opposed to undue haste in this important
work. He said: "The danger is of precipitate action. Delay is now what
we need. The infant in its tiny fingers plays to-day with a handful of
acorns, but two hundred years hence, by the efflux of time, those
acorns are the mighty material out of which navies are built, the
monarch of the forest, defying the shock of the storm and the
whirlwind. Time is a