could put to flight and chase into
degradation two educated, wealthy, thrifty white men. There never has
been, nor ever will be, any Negro domination in that State, and no one
knows it any better than the Democratic party. It is a convenient howl,
however, often resorted to in order to consummate a diabolical purpose
by scaring the weak and gullible whites into support of measures and men
suitable to the demagogue and the ambitious office-seeker, whose craving
for office overshadows and puts to flight all other considerations, fair
or unfair.

As I stated on a former occasion, this young statesman has ample time to
learn better and more useful knowledge than he has exhibited in many of
his speeches upon this floor, and I again plead for him the statute of
youth for the wild and spasmodic notions which he has endeavored to
rivet upon his colleagues and this country. But I regret that Mr.
Kitchin is not alone upon this floor in these peculiar notions advanced.
I refer to another young member of Congress, hailing from the State of
Alabama, Mr. Underwood.

* * * * *

It is an undisputed fact that the Negro vote in the State of Alabama, as
well as most of the other Southern States, has been effectively
suppressed, either one way or the other--in some instances by
constitutional amendment and State legislation, in others by
cold-blooded fraud and intimidation, but whatever the method pursued, it
is not denied, but frankly admitted in the speeches in this House, that
the black vote has been eliminated to a large extent. Then, when some of
us insist that the plain letter of the Constitution of the United
States, which all of us have sworn to support, should be carried out, as
expressed in the second section of the fourteenth amendment thereof.

That section makes the duty of every member of Congress plain, and yet
the gentleman from Alabama [Mr. Underwood] says that the attempt to
enforce this section of the organic law is the throwing down of
fire-brands, and notifies the world that this attempt to execute the
highest law of the land will be retaliated by the South, and the
inference is that the Negro will be even more severely punished than
the horrors through which he has already come.

Let me make it plain: The divine law, as well as most of the State laws,
says, in substance: "He that sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his
blood be shed." A highwayman commits murder, and when the officers of
the law undertake to arre