Speech #460045330

I believe that the exodus. to which he alludes. a year ago. when the direction was to Kansas. did not have this political significance. I watched as well as I could the reasons given for the dissatisfaction of the colored people and the inducement offered them to go to Kansas. I did not discover that it was political. so far as affecting the vote of Kansas was concerned. but I do believe it was in a large measure due to dissatisfied persons in the South. in Mississippi especially. who had boon defeated for political offices there. . will say to the Senator that when I spoke of the fact of the emigration being intended to affect political results. as some people believe. I did not make the charge. but a great many do believe it. and that is the testimony of some of the colored people now. I referred to the belief that this emigration has been seized upon by persons since that time. by these political agents who have gone through the South. and they are diverting this emigration to Indiana for the purpose I suggested. I do not believe that the purpose of the emigration to the Senators State was to control the political majority in that State. but I will state to him further that I do believe. and we have reason for believing. that one other political object of this attempted exodus of the negro population from the South was to lessen the population of the South so as to affect southern representation in Congress under the next census. We believe that a great many hve had that purpose in view. That threat has been openly made: I tell the Senator from Kansas that threat has been made to the South frequently. that the negroes would be induced to leave the South and thereby deprive the Southern States of the additional representation that they acquired in Congress and in the electoral college by reason of the enfranchisement of the colored race.