h Jefferson, that
ignorance is no measure of a man's rights. Slavery has been
abolished, but it left my people in a condition of peonage or
caste worse than slavery, which had its humane masters. White
people should look to their own ancestry; they should recollect
that women were disposed of on the James River, in the early
settlement of the country, as wives, at the price of two hundred
pounds of tobacco. When we have had eight hundred years as the
whites to enlighten ourselves, it will be time enough to
pronounce them incapable of civilization and enlightenment. The
last election showed that they were intelligent enough to vote in
a solid mass with the party that would give them their rights,
and that too in face of the influence of the intelligence and
wealth of the State, and in face of threats to take the bread
from their very mouths. I have no antipathy toward the whites; I
would drop the curtain of oblivion on the sod which contains the
bones of my oppressed and wronged ancestors for two hundred and
fifty years. Give us the franchise, and if we do not exercise it
properly, you have the numbers to take it away from us. It would
be impossible for the Negro to get justice in a State whereof he
was not a full citizen. The prejudice of the entire court would
be against him. I do not expect the Negro to take possession of
the government; I want the franchise given him as an incentive to
work to educate his children. I do not desire to discuss the
question of the inferiority of races. Unpleasant truths must then
be told; history tells us of your white ancestors who lived on
the acorns which dropped from the oaks of Didona, and then
worshipped the tree as a God. I call upon all men who would see
justice done, to meet this question fairly, and fear not to
record their votes."

In the session of January 29th, he said:

"Negroes vote in Ohio and Massachusetts, and in the latter State
are elected to high office by rich men. He had found more
prejudice against his race among the Yankees; and if they did him
a kind act, they did not seem to do it with the generous spirit
of Southern men. He could get nearer the latter; he had been
raised with them. He was the sorrier on this account that they
had refused him the rights which would make him a man,