Speech #500042403

I have felt called upon to say this because I believe thesecharges are untrue. I have felt called upon to say it because I believe it interferes with our material prosperity. I have felt called upon to say it because I believe it tends to turn the tideof immigration from ourdoors. which we so anxiously wish to settle in our inidst. and I believe furthermore that every such speech that is made on this subject. as those that have come from Senators on the other side of the Chamber. increases the bitterness between the races or tends to create division between the white and colored people of the South. In addition to that. it tends to cripplie those who are anxious to see the colored man protected in every right guarantied to him by the Constitution. We have felt and hoped that the time had come when we were again in the Union indeed. when we stood here as equals. and I say that. so far as the people within my knowledge throughout the South are concerned. they are loyal to this Government. proud of its past history. and as anxious for its future prosperity and glory as the men who followed Grant into the trenches of 1etersburgh. and I assert. furthermore. that I believe that with the same love and devotion that they rallied around the fallen banner. the banner that was furled forever upon the field of Appomattox. today they would rally around the Stars and Stripes and defend it against all foes. and be as loyal and true to this Government as any men in any portion of this Union.