to the full enfranchisement of
my race, I meet him only as an adversary; nor shall age or any other
consideration restrain me from saying that he now offers this Government
which he has done his utmost to destroy, a very poor return for its
magnanimous treatment, to come here and seek to continue, by the
assertion of doctrines obnoxious to the true principles of our
Government, the burdens and oppressions which rest upon five millions of
his countrymen who never failed to lift their earnest prayers for the
success of this Government when the gentleman was seeking to break up
the union of these States and to blot the American Republic from the
galaxy of nations.

Sir, it is scarcely twelve years since that gentleman shocked the
civilized world by announcing the birth of a government which rested on
human slavery as its corner-stone. The progress of events has swept away
that pseudo-government which rested on greed, pride, and tyranny; and
the race whom he then ruthlessly spurned and trampled on is here to meet
him in debate, and to demand that the rights which are enjoyed by its
former oppressors--who vainly sought to overthrow a Government which
they could not prostitute to the base uses of slavery--shall be accorded
to those who even in the darkness of slavery kept their allegiance true
to freedom and the Union. Sir, the gentleman from Georgia has learned
much since 1861; but he is still a laggard. Let him put away entirely
the false and fatal theories which have so greatly marred an otherwise
enviable record. Let him accept, in its fullness and beneficence, the
great doctrine that American citizenship carries with it every civil and
political right which manhood can confer. Let him lend his influence
with all his masterly ability, to complete the proud structure of
legislation which makes this nation worthy of the great declaration
which heralded its birth and he will have done that which will most
nearly redeem his reputation in the eyes of the world, and best
vindicate the wisdom of that policy which has permitted him to regain
his seat upon this floor.

To the diatribe of the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Harris) who spoke
yesterday, and who so far transcended the limits of decency and
propriety as to announce upon this floor that his remarks were addressed
to white men alone, I shall have no word of reply. Let him feel that a
Negro was not only too magnanimous to smite him in his weakness, but was
even charitabl